The UKs slowest payers. Named and maybe shamed

Listed here thanks to Businessadvice website with a full article and copied below (the first number is average days to pay)

Personally I think the list is populated by too many specific subsidiaries to be able to draw any real firm conclusions and many of these are overseas in parts of the world where slow payment is the norm. I am also surprised that lower down the list some average payment days are arund the 80 mark. That is very surprising given that a whole host of businesses pay suppliers on 90 day terms.

A fairly useful list maybe but I am not at all sure its definitive

1 WT FILM PRODUCTIONS LIMITED 287 100%
2 BAE SYSTEMS (OMAN) LIMITED 176 79%
3 ERNST & YOUNG (ASIA-PACIFIC) SERVICES LIMITED 175 92%
4 ERNST & YOUNG (ASIA-PACIFIC) SERVICES LIMITED 149 94%
5 KYOWA KIRIN LIMITED 144 72%
6 ERNST & YOUNG (EMEIA) SERVICES LIMITED 136 83%
7 COSTAIN OIL, GAS & PROCESS LIMITED 131 82%
8 TUI UK TRANSPORT LIMITED 129 96%
9 E.ON CLIMATE & RENEWABLES UK HUMBER WIND LIMITED 118 63%
10 ARDAGH METAL BEVERAGE TRADING UK LIMITED 113 92%
11 ERNST & YOUNG (EMEIA) SERVICES LIMITED 109 75%
12 NBCUNIVERSAL INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS ACQUISITIONS LIMITED 107 64%
13 BROWN AND MASON LIMITED 103 66%
14 ASPEN HEALTHCARE LIMITED 101 92%
15 SELECTA U.K. LIMITED 96 68%
16 UNIVERSAL PICTURES GROUP (UK) LIMITED 93 68%
17 SPORTSENGINE UK LIMITED 92 100%
18 TELSTRA LIMITED 92 83%
19 CARLSBERG SUPPLY COMPANY UK LIMITED 92 67%
20 FNZ (UK) LTD 91 90%
21 PLEXUS CORP (UK) LIMITED 91 78%
22 WILLIS INTERNATIONAL LIMITED 91 76%
23 CAPE ENGINEERING SERVICES LIMITED 91 66%
24 TELSTRA LIMITED 88 82%
25 THOMAS COOK GROUP PLC 88 80%
26 KIER PARTNERSHIP HOMES LIMITED 87 81%
27 WILLIAM GRANT & SONS UK LIMITED 86 71%
28 SDC TRAILERS LIMITED 85 78%
29 MWB BUSINESS EXCHANGE CENTRES LIMITED 84 90%
30 WORLDPAY AP LTD. 83 94%
31 MCNICHOLAS CONSTRUCTION SERVICES LIMITED 81 92%
32 MHR INTERNATIONAL UK LIMITED 81 85%
33 KIER PARTNERSHIP HOMES LIMITED 81 70%
34 COCA-COLA EUROPEAN PARTNERS PLC 80 61%
35 RANDSTAD MIDDLE EAST LIMITED 79 100%

 

Seedy invoice finance. Largely gone but not completely

Invoice financing has largely shed its reputation for being too closely associated with the seedier end of the insolvency practice and the willingness to heavily overcharge but there are still occasions where sordid practices still occur and it is part of the brokers role to avoid these lenders

Two instances have recently come to my attention. In the first the lender was trying to impose an “advisor” upon my client (I hadn’t originally arranged the facility) who was of course an insolvency practitioner. When my client stalled they pulled the funding. Fortunately we had an excellent lender ready to confront this lender and take on my client and whilst not quite over the line yet, it has been handled superbly. We exposed a couple of weaknesses with the exisiting lenders contract and referal to the Asset lending associatuon was mentioned

I cannot name the lender but ultimately, you make be able to work it out

The second instance was more straightforward but not with a happy ending. A client was being advised to sign with a lender who, under the terms of the contract, was going to quickly restrict the lending whilst also charging a £10k arrangement fee for a £300k facility. As I understand it, the broker and the “business advisor” have convinced the client to sign this contract despite the serious alarm being raised by myself and the clients lawyer (who refered this to me).

I cannot name the lender, but it was clearly not the optimum solution

Bad seedy practice with collusion between “brokers”, second rate lenders and insolvency practioners does still occur and there are many also dishing out “business advice” with no knowledge of the market.

 

The government has no respect for small businesses?

Further to my piece on the possible sale of Railway Arches to a PE company, we now find that this has been completed

Has there ever been a firmer indication by a government that they have no regard for small city based enterprises? Absolutely clueless and arrogant and with an opposition led by those who are idealogically opposed to enterprise full stop, where does the entrepeneur turn?

This blog does its best to avoid politics but I believe most would agree there is a huge gaping hole in our political spectrum waiting to be filled by a competent non  idealogically driven party that is not totally out of touch with the wider economy

This particular issue has been driven home by the photo the BBC chose for its piece. Its copied above and is a small location in Southwark that hosts a number of excellent small theatres. Earlier this year I saw a superb production of Chekovs Cherry Tree at the Union Theatre which is just to the right in this view. Enterprises such as this struggle to make margins of course and there is now the lingering concern that a faceless bottom line driven landlord will simply drive these enterprises out