No, of course not, but you may be surprised to learn that’s the average sum subcontractors wrote off in bad debts last year. This staggering figure is part of a recent report co-written by Bibby Financial Services and The Vinden Partnership.
The “Subcontracting Growth 2018” research was written following the collapse of Carillion revealing 60% of subcontractors have suffered from bad debt in the last 12 months, and that more than £2.8bn has had to be written off.
Other interesting facts from this report include:
- Almost 80% of subcontractors don’t always receive full payment for their work and the most common reason is customer insolvency.
- Subcontractors take on an average of 45 new contracts each year.
- 47% of subcontractors say that the collapse of Carillion has made them wary of working with main contractors.
Since the Carillion collapse, the spotlight has been focussed once again on the financial stability of the supply chain. It has been estimated that over 30,000 businesses in the supply chain have been affected by the failure of Britain’s second largest construction company.
Looking into the immediate future, what is the best approach to protect yourself from being yet another victim of non or late payment? One way would be to check the financial stability of a client, but in the past this information has been both costly and difficult to access. However, you can do this very quickly and cheaply through the Copronet platform and its Finance Checker tool.
We have partnered with one of the UK’s leading credit rating agencies, CreditSafe. At the touch of a button you can see the financial standing of anyone in your supply chain. With the alert functionality, if their financial standing changes, for example, a change in their credit score, credit limit or payment trend you will receive an email notification alerting you of this fact. The credit checker tool gives you instant access to any company’s financial stability – a great tool in these uncertain times!
We have partnered up with NAPIT to help members grow, manage and protect their businesses.
