Hospitality sector suffers most company failures

The research, released by Creditsafe, found that across the hospitality industry, there were 591 company failures, up 79 percent from 330 in the same time period in 2017. The top three company failures by size were Gioma UK, Cau Restaurants and Villandry Foodstore Restaurant.

The news comes as retail researchers at the British Retail Consortium and analysis firm Springboard announced the number of people out shopping in the UK in November dropped to its lowest level since the 2008 recession.

“The 3.2 percent drop in footfall in November is indisputable evidence that Black Friday delivers no tangible benefit to bricks and mortar stores,” said Diane Wehrle, marketing and insights director at Springboard. “While online shopping was inevitably more prevalent than in other months, the vast majority of spending still remained in store and this is what Black Friday impacts adversely."

She warned that more high street chains could collapse in January, continuing a torrid trend throughout 2018, which saw several store chains fail.

The construction sector came in second place on the Creditsafe Index with an insolvency ranking of 0.22 percent, which reflected 943 company failures for the sector, while manufacturing was in third with 430 failures. The lowest rate of failure went to the farming and agriculture sector, which only had 0.05 percent, equating to only 17 company failures.

Chris Robertson, UK managing director at Creditsafe, said: “Our insolvency index has produced interesting results that show the pressure that all sectors across the UK economy are under. Clearly, company failures in some sectors hit the headlines more than others, but this data shows that the rate of failure in the hospitality, construction and manufacturing industries in particular is cause for concern.

“This is a reminder for companies to stay on top of their own finances and heed any warning signs, while also staying vigilant across the supply chain by carrying out company credit and health checks.”