The coronavirus outbreak is set to cause more issues for small businesses as the larger high street retailers suffer due to empty high streets.
On 2nd April retailer New Look wrote to all its suppliers to announce that it wouldn’t be paying them for existing stock and would be cancelling its orders for spring and summer.
This is a double blow for some small businesses who have not only provided the stock currently in the shops but had also started their own orders for the coming seasons.
This will create a ripple down from New Look all along the supply chain.
To make matters worse, it is expected that Debenhams will enter administration in the next 2 weeks as it has not made the payment to its employee pension fund as expected by the Pension Regulator.
Due to the closure of the stores, all 22,000 staff had been put on furlough.
This non payment comes after the store chain wrote to landlords to ask for a rent holiday.
Similar to New Look, the store chain has a large stock holding that it potentially wont be paying for and will cancel further production of stock that will be a further blow for small suppliers.
The Government is making regular announcements on how repayments to HMRC can be delayed plus a range of loans and awards to help pay employees that can be accessed, to help small firms survive. These measure are also being rolled out to the self employed.
If you have a problem, Harrisons Business Rescue can help identify that problem and work with you to find a solution
The BBC news article relating to New Look is here
The Retail Gazette article about Debenhams can be found here
