Small business domestic turnover decreased by 7 per cent between Q4 2011 and Q1 2012, research finds.

Small business domestic turnover decreased by 7 per cent between Q4 2011 and Q1 2012, research finds.

Export turnover for the same period is also down by 9 per cent, confirming a slow start to the year, according to a quarterly study by ABN AMRO Commercial Finance.

However, year-on-year export turnover is still up 68 per cent on Q1 2011.

Peter Brinsley, international manager at ABN AMRO says, ‘These disappointing recent results are reflective of a challenging trading environment and echo the economic picture as the UK falls ‘technically’ back into recession.

‘Short-term paralysis fuelled by continuing speculation of a double-dip recession should now be at an end and small businesses should interpret these figures as a blip and not a trend. Export turnover is still up significantly on 2011 overall and there are growth opportunities available, particularly for bold and agile small and medium-sized businesses.’

Despite quarterly performance falling in Q1, some sectors are still up on the same period in 2011, indicating that they are holding on to performance gains built up over the last few years.

Turnover fell, or remained stagnant, across all sectors between Q4 2011 and Q1 2012. The recruitment sector has seen the largest contraction in turnover in this period (11 per cent).

However, turnover grew slightly year-on-year in the services (1 per cent), engineering (0.5 per cent) and recruitment (1 per cent) sectors.  

The manufacturing and distribution sectors have seen consistent turnover decline with a fall of 5 and 6 per cent year-on-year respectively.

Brinsley adds, ‘It’s encouraging to see the services sector holding up in the medium-term yet it’s certainly worrying to see manufacturing and distribution performance falling and this has no doubt contributed to us entering the double-dip.

Despite shaky performance, invoice payment times have actually improved for domestic and export customers.

Export payment times fell from 63 days to 60 between Q4 and Q1, while in the domestic market, this decreased on average by 1.5 days.

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