The Institute of credit management have today unveiled a league table that charts how long it takes for every UK PLC to pay suppliers.
For SMEs, this is great news as late payment by large companies is often damaging to the smaller business that relies on regular cash flow. The government talked a lot of hot air as usual when they promised to ‘do something’ about late payers, several years back.
And so, who is the worst offender, named and shamed as taking an average of 99 days to pay its suppliers is United Utilities, the gas and water company. Also among the worst offenders are Cable and Wireless, who take 79 days, Speedy Hire, a slow 72 days and the chain store Debenhams, who pay out on 57 days.
The quickest to settle their bills were found to be Electra Private Equity, who will pay up in one day.
The average payment period across all FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 listed companies is 34 days, while for all PLCs it is 44 days.
Here is a list of the 25 worst payers:
Cable And Wireless (fixed line telecommunications) 79
Astrazeneca (pharmaceuticals biotechnology) 74
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (pharmaceuticals biotechnology) 74
Ashtead Group (support services) 72
Speedy Hire (support services) 72
Daily Mail And General Trust (media) 68
Aegis Group (media) 67
UK Coal (mining) 67
Morgan Crucible Company (electronic electrical equipment) 66
Croda International (chemicals) 65
Vedanta Resources (mining) 64
Bellway (household goods) 63
Bss Group (support services) 63
Euromoney Institutional Investor (media) 62
Sabmiller (beverages) 61
Expro International Group (oil equipment, services distribution) 60
Keller Group (construction materials)
59
Chemring Group (manufacture explosives) 59
Wolseley (wholesale hardware plumbing heating equipment supplies) 59
Rentokil (washing dry cleaning textile fur products) 58
Carpetright (floor coverings retailer) 58
Debenhams (clothing retailer) 57
Source: Institute of Credit Management, Credit Management Research Centre and CreditScorer Ltd
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2 comments so far
1 Sue Massey // Mar 6, 2008 at 7:23 pm
I found your site on google blog search and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. Just added your RSS feed to my feed reader. Look forward to reading more from you.
- Sue.
2 THE SMALL BUSINESS BLOG » Blog Archive » UK/Ireland Small Business News Round-up - 07/03/2008 // Mar 7, 2008 at 9:42 am
[…] League table of late paying PLCs: The Institute of credit management have today unveiled a league table that charts how long it takes for every UK PLC to pay suppliers. For SMEs, this is great news as late payment by large companies is often damaging to the smaller business that relies on regular cash flow. The government talked a lot of hot air as usual when they promised to ‘do something’ about late payers, several years back. […]