Dealers fear recession
November 27th, 2009 by Richard Aucock
CAR dealer business owners fear the recession may still have a year to run, despite the worst being over.
More than half say the recession is set to continue for 12 months or more.
The findings are from a new survey by Clifton Asset Management – which also reveals some positive news: more firms have been able to avoid cutting staff in the past 6 months.
3 months ago, more than a third of car dealers found they’d had to cut staff. This time round, the number has fallen to 28 percent. What’s more, far less businesses fear they will have to cut staff in the coming months, either.
35 percent reckon business has improved, although the same number say nothing much has changed. At least both outweigh the 27 percent who say things got worse.
‘Our survey is starting to reveal real cause for hope, on the jobs front at least, that the worst is over,’ said Anthony Carty, director at Clifton Asset Management.
‘However SMEs are at the eye of the storm and over half believe the recovery will be long and slow. This seems to chime with forecasts that we could be into 2011 before the recovery is properly under way.
‘Any recovery will be slow at a time when they are bracing themselves for the ‘double whammy’ of tax increases and public spending cuts.’
Do they findings of the survey match your experience of the recession?
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