Half of small businesses passing on costs.

 The ongoing fuel crisis has hit the headlines as well as people’s pockets, as price hikes, panic buying, strikes, and petrol shortages have become widespread across the UK.

And the latest research from Bibby Financial Services has revealed that more than half (52 per cent) of small businesses are already passing on to their customers increased costs incurred by the fuel crisis.
 
Of the businesses surveyed, 79% of owners and managers said they were feeling the effect of rising fuel costs on their business, with just over a third (35 per cent) looking for ways to diversify and grow their business in order to cope with higher prices. While a quarter 26% are already championing cost reductions by cutting how much time they spend on the road, one in five are under pressure from employees to increase fuel allowances (19%).
 
A North/South divide is also evident with a massive 83 per cent of owners/managers in the North of England citing the rising fuel costs as the key transport issue affecting their business, 10 per cent more than business in the South (73%).

Region by region, it is those businesses in the more rural area of East Anglia that are feeling the greatest affect of the fuel crisis (96 per cent), and industrial areas such as the East Midlands (90 per cent) and the North West (89 per cent).
 
Around a third of businesses in the Midlands and the South (27%) are already responding to the fuel crisis by reviewing their company vehicles and making plans to introduce more efficient models – this figure is nine per cent more than in the North (18%).

Despite businesses in the North citing the fuel crisis as having a major effect on their operations, they are slower to present a solution to the problem than other parts of the UK.
 
David Robertson, chief executive of Bibby Financial Services, said; “The fuel crisis is on everyone’s minds at the moment and has become a very public issue overnight. This survey gives a voice to the impact that heightened transport issues, particularly surrounding fuel costs, are having on Britain’s small and medium sized businesses.

He goes onto say that there are many companies already carrying out and planning solutions to the problem of increased fuel costs, which is encouraging but the majority of businesses are yet to take action.  "Owners and managers must take steps now to fortify their cash flow and reduce the risk of the fuel crisis on their business from being any greater than it already is,” says Robertson.

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