Other Sub-Sections
International
152 respondents identified their businesses as being ‘International'. The responses of these businesses demonstrated some differences with businesses that identified themselves as ‘Regional' or ‘National'.
Around the same percentage of international businesses (34.1%) as total businesses (33.8%) had applied for finance in the previous three months. However, international business were less likely to have their request for finance granted as requested (42%) than regional or national businesses (62%). They were more likely to have the terms of the finance altered or amount reduced (46%) than regional or national businesses (29.4%). They were also more likely to have finance requests refused (12% versus 8.6%).
When asked to compare the current situation to 12 months ago, 30.4% of all respondents thought that it was a little harder to raise finance in February 2009, 34.7% thought it was a lot harder and 3.1% thought it was impossible. For international businesses, 21.2% thought it was a little harder, 42.5% thought it was a lot harder and 4.4% thought it was impossible.
Sectors
Three industries were significantly represented in the survey – construction (13.7%), business services (13.5%) and manufacturing (13.1%). A comparison of the responses of these specific industries to the overall survey results offers some interesting insights.
Construction
The proportion of construction businesses that have applied for finance in the previous three months (34.9%) was roughly the same as the proportion of total survey respondents that had done so (34.2%). However, while 59.5% of all finance applications were granted as requested, only 46.9% of applications by construction businesses were granted as initially requested. 34.4% of construction applications were granted with amended terms, compared to 23.4% for all respondents.
When asked how their credit facilities had changed in the previous three months there was little difference between the two groups regarding access to overdrafts and their interest rates and fees; however, there was a noticeable difference between the results for the security and collateral required. While the overall survey results showed 17.1% of businesses needing more collateral/security in the last three months, the construction results showed 27.7% of businesses needing more.
In addition, only 37.0% of construction businesses found that changes in the availability of finance had had no effect on their business, compared to 48.5% of all respondents. 26.0% of construction businesses reported that the availability of finance caused them to lay-off staff (15.2% for the overall survey response) and 19.2% had found that the changes in finance availability meant they could no longer pay all of their bills (9.4% for the overall survey response).
40.5% of construction businesses answered that their sales/revenue had decreased somewhat in the last three months and 37.8% that it had decreased greatly. The overall survey results for these questions were 38.4% and 23.3% respectively. Considerably more construction businesses had put earlier plans for expansion on hold (45.9%) than total businesses (29.3%). Half of the construction businesses surveyed (50.7%) had decreased their numbers of employees in the previous three months, compared to 35.2% of businesses doing so overall.
Manufacturing
The answers provided by the manufacturing businesses that participated in the survey were largely similar to the overall responses as far as the credit availability questions are concerned. However, when asked how they had responded to the changing economic situation as a whole over the last three months, some differences emerge. 44.3% of manufacturing businesses answered that they had decreased their number of employees in the previous three months and 44.9% that they had reduced working hours. The overall percentages for the same questions were 35.2% and 31.5%.
Similarly, when asked how their business expected certain factors to change in the next six months to a year, 34.2% of manufacturing businesses expected their employee numbers to decrease and 32.9% expected the hours worked by employees to decrease. The overall results for these questions were 26.2% and 27.2%.
Business Services
The overall results showed that 34.2% of businesses had applied for finance in the previous three months. Only 17.9% of business services businesses had applied for finance. 85.7% the business services businesses that had not applied for finance said that additional finance was not required; 75.9% of total businesses cited the same reason. Of the business services businesses that did apply for finance 66.7% had their application granted as requested, compared to 59.5% of all businesses.
64.2% of business services businesses answered that the availability of finance had not affected their business, compared to 48.5% of all businesses. There was also some divergence between the two groups when asked about the impact of the economic situation on sales/revenue. The total percentage of businesses that answered that their sales/revenue had decreased somewhat was 38.4% and those that answered that it had decreased greatly was 23.2%. For business services businesses those figures were 25.7% and 24.3%.
Business services businesses were also less likely to have decreased their employee numbers, hours worked, advertising, credit and prices (27.0%, 23.0%, 24.3%, 14.9% and 9.5% respectively) when compared to the total proportions (35.2%, 31.5%, 32.3%, 21.1% and 14.9%).
Similarly, business services businesses had a more positive outlook of the next six months to year. Only 16.4% of business services businesses expected to decrease their employee numbers, compared to 26.2% of all businesses. 15.1% of business services businesses expected to reduce working hours (27.2% total), 11.4% of business services businesses expected to reduce advertising (23.7% total), 34.7% expected other business expenditure to decrease (46.4% total) and just 6.8% expected their prices to decrease (15.2% total).
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