While the Commerce Models sector appears healthier than the UK average, the vast chasm between the best and worst payers – Slater Menswear's score is over 21 times higher than Jimmy Choo's – suggests significant internal discrepancies and a wide range of payment ethics. Despite being the location for the largest number of companies analysed, London's average PaymentCheck Score aligns with the East of England at 65.8/100, suggesting factors beyond mere geographical location influence payment performance.
Although the sample sizes are small, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland boast higher regional average PaymentCheck Scores than London, which had the largest pool of companies; this may indicate that size and complexity are barriers to better payment practices, but this needs further investigation using a larger and more diverse sample.
Consider using a late payment calculator to understand the cost of delayed invoices.
One-line takeaway: With a score of 4.5/100, the worst payer, Jimmy Choo Group Limited, highlights that even within a relatively strong sector, some businesses severely lag behind on payment performance.
Commerce Models' overall payment performance saw a slight dip in 2025, with the average score across 181 companies declining by 1.0 point to 63.0. This year highlighted notable shifts in individual company practices, rather than a broad sector trend. ESTEE LAUDER COSMETICS LIMITED emerged as a top performer, dramatically improving its score by an impressive 24.1 points to reach 90.2/100, showcasing a significant commitment to timely payments. Conversely, LIBERTY RETAIL LIMITED experienced a notable decline of 6.1 points, bringing its score to 59.2/100, now sitting below the overall average. While the overall landscape saw fewer companies tracked, major players like APPLE (UK) LIMITED (64.8/100) and DFS TRADING LIMITED (66.9/100) joined the dataset, adding new significant names to monitor. Suppliers should pay close attention to the specific payment trends of their individual clients, as company-level changes were more pronounced than market-wide movements.
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