Plimsoll

Last week the American Retail giant Toys R Us, Inc filed for bankruptcy in North America to help restructure its debts.

Grain Merchant Wellgrain Ltd went into administration earlier this month owning at least £15m to almost 300 creditors.

No salesperson ever lost their job by walking into their finance department with a credit report on their big new customer and saying, “their rating looks solid enough, let’s sign them up”.

It is clear that the UK retail market is changing. But before we accept the news that Maplin, Prezzo and New Look are suffering from a brutal winter, let's look at the full picture.

On the back of the news that UK retail sales fell by 0.8% for the month of September, Plimsoll has updated its view on the financial health of the UK’s top 100 High Street Retailers.

Plimsoll's latest quarterly survey of the mood across the UK economy comes at a time of spring optimism and the hope that the dark days of the past 12-18 months are behind us.

New research into the financial performance of the UK Fresh Produce sector has revealed how the industry’s top companies have performed throughout the last 12 months.

Every business leader has those few strategic questions that they wish they had easy, ready-made answers to. Those key questions that keep coming up in every board meeting and around the water cooler cost time and money compiling that could be better spent acting on. Questions such as:

Imagine that your most important supplier has unexpectedly announced they have ceased trading. What would you do? Desperately Google for other suppliers? See prices soar as scarcity drives up the pricing power of remaining suppliers?

New research from global market analysts Plimsoll Publishing Ltd has identified 22 inspirational companies who are prospering within the UK Fresh Produce sector.