The British Office Supplies and Services Federation (BOSS) along with its partner the British Printing Industries Federation (BPIF), has released further insights from their Business Impact Survey.
BOSS has been calling for further direct support for the business supplies industry during the coronavirus crisis, and have been providing regular updates to
BOSS can report unprecedented pressure on our sector as a direct impact of the COVID-19 crisis in the UK and beyond. This report sets out some of the initial, but very significant effects the crisis has taken so far on our industry, and the effectiveness of government support actions.
Amy Hutchinson, BOSS Federation CEO said, “We created our Business Impact Survey immediately after the announcement of lockdown to better represent and communicate the initial impacts of COVID-19 on our sector to BEIS. The negative impact of this pandemic on companies is clearly shown, 74 per cent of respondents have reported a considerable downturn in order levels, with the average change of -65 per cent. Businesses are under intense pressure with over three-quarters requiring some degree of emergency assistance to maintain cash flow, cover costs and survive and 73 per cent acutely or very concerned about their medium-term survival.
“Government support has been welcomed from respondents in terms of its timeliness and extensiveness, it is clear the JRS has enabled businesses to avoid large scale redundancies, for now, however feedback on access to the support available has been less positive with 41 per cent citing this as poor or very poor. We’ll continue to lobby for flexibility and clarification on both the JR and CBIL schemes, responses to the latter show a real challenge in accessibility. The survey has also confirmed that 27 per cent of responding firms’ business is supporting critical services and we will ensure this is highlighted to BEIS.”
For any queries about our Business Impact Survey, please contact kyle.jardine@bpif.org.uk, any further queries on this release please email amy@bossfederation.co.uk.
