Distressed businesses soar in 2008

The number of distressed British businesses trebled in 2008 compared with the previous year.

Insolvency expert Begbies Traynor said it expectes a big rise in retail failures this year.
A total of 5,651 companies faced critical problems in the fourth quarter of 2008, up 82 percent on the year. The increase for the whole of 2008 was 245 percent.”We expect the rate of retail failures, running at an annualised figure of 1,600 in the weeks before Christmas and up 58 percent from 2007, to accelerate sharply through 2009 as sales continue to fall despite ongoing discounting and as the weakness of sterling drives up costs,” the company said.

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