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Sales take priority as companies 'grab business at any cost'
Page 51
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PLIMSOLL PUBLISHING, whose June report ('Bigger players enjoy greater growth' CM 19 June) forecast 11,000 job losses in the haulage industry and pronounced more than 25% of firms at risk, says industry feedback suggests sales acquisition is triumphing over profit.
The latest analysis indicates that market growth is at 6%. only slightly down on last year. However 23% of companies are selling at a loss and 45% are making less profit than last year. A further 29% are in more debt than they were 12 months ago.
The report declares 360 companies within the industry are at risk of failure.
Senior analyst David Pattison comments: "The latest figures suggest that the focus has switched from profit to sales, as companies grab business at almost any cost. The old adage has never been more apt: "Sales are vanity, profit is sanity."