UK companies defy economic turmoil, say analysts

The UK label industry is seeing a mini resurgence, despite recent jitters on the domestic and world markets, according to business analysts Plimsoll.

‘Our summary of the market finds 51 percent of companies in the sector in a surprisingly confident mood,’ said David Pattison, senior analyst at Plimsoll. ‘This has been fuelled largely by their latest results, but we have identified a group of 20 companies which are the driving force behind the resurgence, having increased their sales by 19 percent and lifted their profitability from 5.1 percent last year to 10.3 percent this year.

‘We always knew that for many companies 2007 was a make or break year, but with all the talk of a slow down in the UK economy the figures from this elite group of companies are really refreshing. A lot of hard work during the past couple of years is finally starting to pay off.’

Also apparently flying in the face of economic scare stories is the fact that levels of investment are increasing for the first time in five years.

Pattison continued: ‘Bad publicity in the shape of job losses has led people to believe that the industry is in decline, but this is not the case. Total output from the sector continues to rise, while sales are up 1 percent. But for many, those sales increases are reaching 2 percent. Behind all this is increased productivity and capital investment. Successful companies have been chasing new levels of efficiency to compete on the UK stage.’

Not all the results are good, and the main cause for concern, according to Plimsoll, is the failure of 16 companies in its analysis to cope with these new levels of business performance. Worse still, Pattison warns, some of them will struggle to survive if, as expected, the wider economic picture results in a bumpy ride during the next six months for UK business in general.

The latest Plimsoll analysis of the UK label industry contains a fully updated individual assessment of each of the UK’s top 466 label companies. The latest report analyzes each company in the industry individually as well as providing in-depth market analysis.