Member Article

Businesses in Coventry and Warwickshire look to brighter future in face of harsh economic headwinds

Businesses faced up to the “harsh economic headwinds” but managed to look to the future with optimism at a major economic event in Warwickshire.

The Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber’s quarterly economic breakfast – held on the day when it was announced that UK GDP rose by 0.5 per cent in May – heard that rising costs, wage demands and staff shortages were affecting the ability of local firms to grow.

Sean Rose, the Chamber’s Head of Policy, and Steve Harcourt of Prime Accountants Group, outlined the findings of the latest Quarterly Economic Survey before a panel of business leaders detailed the economic fortunes of their businesses.

Rose said that it was clear firms in all sectors were facing the same challenges but to different degrees.

“While the challenges are common, some sectors are more confident and faring better than others. Manufacturing has seen rising confidence and it is clear that the sector has cleared some of the backlog it faced and that is reflected in its fortunes,” he said. “There is no getting away from the fact that we face harsh economic headwinds with no real way of judging how long they may last.

“However, we have a mixed economy and we are a very resilient and collaborative region. There is still support out there through the Chamber and others, and we would urge businesses to take advantage of what is out there.”

Harcourt told the 50-plus businesses that growth forecasts for the year had been cut, but were still at encouraging levels.

He said: “We are hoping that global factors will improve throughout the year but that is very difficult to predict especially with the war in Ukraine having such an impact. “There was always going to be a post-pandemic bounce but that has, in some cases, not been as strong as anticipated. Certainly, clients in leisure and hospitality have pulled back on some of their prediction as quarter two saw a dip.

“Prices are rising at 10 per cent and businesses are having to pass those on to customers, but it is predicted that inflation may draw back to somewhere nearer five per cent which will make a big difference.”

The panel of Roger Scott (Lloyds Bank), Kate Hunter (Bear Cleaning), Andy Williams (Coventry City Council) and Nikki Bains (Birmingham International Airport) discussed topics including export, rising costs, training recruitment and inward investment.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Matt Joyce .