Member Article

Yorkshire manufacturing sector continues to show signs of improvement

In November, the percentage of manufacturing companies in Yorkshire at higher than normal risk of insolvency saw a slight fall of 1.2%from October, as the regional economy continued to steady with almost every sector surveyed experiencing a month on month improvement.

Levels of heightened risk in the sector in Yorkshire are now 37.7%, close to the national average of 37.1%. This equates to over 5,600 of the nearly 15,000 active manufacturing businesses in the region at higher than usual risk of insolvency, down from just under 5,700 in October.

Of the 12 regions in the UK, Wales’s manufacturing sector performed most poorly, with 42.2% of manufacturing companies at higher than normal risk, followed by the South West with 40.8%. The strongest performances were from London with just 33.6% at risk, and Northern Ireland which saw 33.8% in the higher risk category.

In all of the 11 sectors tracked by R3, Yorkshire saw month-on-month decreases in levels of businesses at risk, with the exception of hotels where the proportion of companies at heightened risk increased by 2.6% to reach 33.8%, not too far adrift of the UK average of 32.4%. Overall, levels of heightened risk in the region across all sectors fell by just under 1% from October to November.

“It’s reassuring to see that the escalating levels of insolvency risk which we witnessed over the last year and a half across companies in Yorkshire appear to have plateaued. Despite ongoing uncertainty as March 2019 approaches, for many regional firms it appears to be ‘business as usual’, with manufacturing, which is always a useful barometer of economic health, remaining resilient,” comments Eleanor Temple, chair of R3 in Yorkshire and a barrister at Kings Chambers in Leeds.

“Overall, the region appears to be holding its own, with levels of enhanced risk in Yorkshire close to the national average across most sectors. However, for any businesses which are suffering financial problems, we continue to urge you to seek professional advice at the first signs of trouble when the most options will be available to help you.”

R3 uses research compiled from Bureau van Dijk’s ‘Fame’ database of company information to track the number of businesses in key regional sectors that have a heightened risk of entering insolvency in the next year.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Emma Kilmurray .