Plimsoll

The UK construction industry has narrowly avoided a recession by recording growth of 0.6% in Q3. This comes after the 1.2% decline in the previous quarter which had stoked fears that this bellweather of the UK economy was entering its first recession since the financial crisis.

As the UK economy flirts with recession, Plimsoll has taken a look at 5 large markets that are struggling for growth:

Hammered by Brexit uncertainty, government paralysis, and increasingly uncertain Global trade, the UK economy has struggled for growth in recent years. However, some regions are powering ahead while others stagnate.

Surely post-industrial regions will fare far worse than their richer, Southern counterparts in the event of a No Deal Brexit right? Plimsoll, the UK’s leading provider of individual market studies, has pulled together analysis from their 1600 different market studies and thinks the reality could be quite different.

Sadly, Harland & Wolff have filed for insolvency after their Norwegian parent company Dolphin Drilling (who recently filed for bankruptcy) had failed to find a buyer and the Government announced that the birthplace of the Titanic would not be nationalised.

Corporate Road Solutions 24/7 (trading as Beau) has recently gone into administration. The Bathgate-based firm has cited reasons for the collapse as "increasingly challenging market conditions and cost pressures”.

With turbulence in the UK car manufacturing industry due to Brexit, we decided to take an objective look at the industry to see what impact any further trading difficulties might have.

Bovis Homes, one of the UK’s leading House Builders has revived talks to buy Galliford Try’s housing business. Previous talks had fallen flat in May, but this latest, revised proposal is £25million higher and offers Galliford shareholders a ‘large chunk of cash’.

MPs calling for a £2-per-bet limit on popular online games to combat what they say is a “public health crisis” will completely change the make-up of the UK online gambling market.

Eddie Stobart who recently suspended trading of shares after a multi-million pound accounting error that saw the firm’s profits shrink to a level which the Board has described as the ‘low end of expectation’, has been approached for potential buy-out by Dbay Advisors.

The road haulage firm started the year with an impressive performance, defying potential Brexit concerns with the prospect of a March departure, but suffered after a multi-million pound accounting error saw a decline in share performance. This could be what has motivated the firm that hold the third-largest share in Eddie Stobart to begin buy-out negotiations.

Plimsoll’s Road Haulage industry analysis shows consistent improvement in Eddie Stobart’s overall financial rating from 2014 to 2017. The company also came 7th in the industry for pre-tax profits, and 3rd in total sales in the industry back in 2017.