Bank says better finance would help generate £180 billion-plus for SME manufacturers
8 Apr 2019
Small to medium-sized manufacturing firms in the UK would boost revenue by an extra £183 billion if they had better access to finance, claims new research.
Wyelands Bank says its poll of senior financial decision-makers from 305 UK manufacturers turning over £10 million-£30 million showed nearly nine out of 10 were held back by lack of finance.
It says firms reported that consequently they had missed out on an average of £20 million in revenues and an average of 11 new contracts These would have enabled each firm to create 10 new jobs asserts Wyelands.
These figures suggest that the 23,000 mid-sized manufacturing businesses in the UK have collectively missed out on 163,000 contracts. These would have created 175,000 jobs claimed the company.
CEO Iain Hunter stated: “Mid-sized firms, turning over £10-300 million, are often too big to benefit from the attention that is rightly given by policy makers to small businesses. Yet they are generally not big enough to benefit from the economies of scale of larger firms.
“Helping individual businesses unlock growth along the manufacturing supply chain would help tackle the UK economy’s productivity challenges. Mid-market firms can have a disproportionate effect on growth and job creation, but first they need to be understood as individual businesses.”
Wyelands’ criticism of traditional banks is perhaps to be expected as the company positions itself as partnering businesses to “support industrial growth, enable businesses to trade more easily around the world and to create jobs”.
Helping individual businesses unlock growth along the manufacturing supply chain would help tackle the UK economy’s productivity challenges
Iain Hunter, CEO, Wyelands Bank
However its claims may be supported to some degree by the findings of business advisory firm BDO. It has pointed out that medium sized companies have delivered revenue growth of 32% and profit growth of 45%.
This compares with FTSE 350 companies whose revenues have shrunk by 0.6% and whose profits have fallen by 40% in the same period. Small business revenues fell by 2% though profits rose by 6% in this timescale.
