One in eight facing bad debt
problems – survey
19th May 2020

Nearly one in every eight UK fabricators and installers could be facing financial difficulties with high or even very high credit risk even before the Covid lockdown, according to figures published this week.

The warning follows a survey by Insight Data showing more than 1,000 fabricators and installers in a sample of 9,075 fell into the credit risk categories

Operations director Jade Greenhow said the figure would be much higher if extrapolated across the whole industry: “We reviewed the financials of over 9,000 companies and 12% were rated as high-risk companies. If we used the same measurement across the entire industry that means 1,688 fabricators and installers could be in financial trouble.”

She added: “The major concern is this data precedes the coronavirus pandemic, so the financial position will have worsened significantly, and this could lead to a serious bad debt situation for suppliers.”

At the other end of the scale, she added, 59% of fabricators and 53% of installers were found to be healthy with a low credit risk.

She concluded: “It is clear there will be a period of instability and some companies will disappear while others become stronger. As we move towards a recovery, suppliers will want to assess their customers and potential customers to minimise bad debt risk.”

www.insightdata.co.uk