PSPs warned to keep an eye on customers’ finances

Companies in the print sector are being warned by credit referencing company ICSM Credit to regularly monitor the state of their customers’ finances.

The warning follows the grim news that the second quarter of 2018 proved another bad one for businesses, with company liquidations leaping by 23% over the same period of 2017 – with retail and construction the two sectors most under pressure. New year-on-year figures from Dun & Bradstreet show that in the three months to June a total of 4,148 businesses shut up shop. The equivalent Q2 figure for 2017 was 3,372. Retail trade liquidations recorded a rise in Q2 of 23.5% on the previous quarter alone, while the year-on-year total retail insolvencies increased by 36.7%. D&B’s new statistics confirm the upward trend identified in the Government’s own most recent figures: the breakdown shows a total of 3,918 companies entering insolvency in Q2 2018, comprising 2,731 creditors’ voluntary liquidations (69.7% of all insolvencies), 752 compulsory liquidations (19.2%) and 435 other insolvencies (11.1%). When compared to the same quarter last year, total company insolvencies increased by 12.0% and the underlying number of insolvencies increased by 12.6%. The number of CVLs in Q2 2018 was 2,731, a decrease of 0.5% on Q1 2018, but rose by 14.6% compared with Q2 2017. “Whichever way you look at the figures, trading conditions are continuing to be very tough – and many companies are really feeling the strain, including a lot of well-established businesses,” said Ian Carrotte, owner of ICSM Credit. “This makes it critical for suppliers in the print sector not only to check out new customers, but also to keep tabs on their long-standing ones.”