← Back to Reports

North East Payment Practices Report 2023

•By PaymentCheck•Reports

North East Businesses Outpace UK in Payment Performance, But Wide Disparities Persist

The Numbers

  • Companies Analysed: 139
  • Average PaymentCheck Score (North East): 63.3/100
  • Average PaymentCheck Score (UK): 50.0/100
  • North East Average Above UK Average: 13.3 points

What Stands Out

While the North East comfortably exceeds the national average, the data exposes a significant chasm between the best and worst payers, demonstrating that a rising tide doesn't necessarily lift all boats. The concentration of top payers within specific sectors, notably Human Resources and Software (albeit based on a small sample), hints at industry-specific payment cultures.

Best Payers

These companies demonstrate exemplary payment practices, reaching near-perfect PaymentCheck scores:

  1. HAYS TRAVEL LIMITED - 99.67/100: A well-known name in travel, signaling their suppliers can expect prompt payments.
  2. TOGETHER FOR CHILDREN SUNDERLAND LIMITED - 99.4/100: This suggests strong financial management within this Sunderland-based children's services organization.
  3. NIGEL FRANK INTERNATIONAL LIMITED - 97.17/100: Specializing in recruitment, they practice what they preach in terms of fair and timely treatment.
  4. SUNDERLAND CARE AND SUPPORT LIMITED - 96.6/100: Another care-focused organisation that is prioritizing good payment practices.
  5. STUDENT LOANS COMPANY LIMITED - 96.57/100: Given their scale and role, this indicates a robust and reliable payment system.

Worst Payers

These companies are significantly underperforming, which may be of concern to smaller business suppliers:

  1. TT ELECTRONICS IOT SOLUTIONS LIMITED - 16.45/100: A very low score suggesting potential issues with payment delays.
  2. ARRIVA RAIL NORTH LIMITED - 17.9/100: Indicates potential cash flow problems affecting their payments or issues with internal systems.
  3. TECHNIPFMC UMBILICALS LTD - 30.5/100: Raises questions about supplier relations within this specialist manufacturing sector.
  4. TECHNIP UK LIMITED - 30.9/100: Similar to the score of TECHNIPFMC UMBILICALS LTD, this indicates a systemic issue within the Technip group.
  5. QUANTUM PHARMACEUTICAL LIMITED - 33/100: Suggests a need to improve payment processes or address cashflow issues.

Sector Breakdown

The data shows some variance between sectors, although the sector sample sizes are small:

  • Human Resources: 97.2 avg (1 companies)
  • Software: 91.5 avg (1 companies)
  • Financial Services: 83.5 avg (5 companies)
  • Care Services: 83.3 avg (4 companies)
  • Education: 79.0 avg (6 companies)

The Human Resources and Software sectors appear to be the strongest payers based on the data, but only contain 1 company each so this isn't representative of those sectors as a whole. Education appears to be the lowest paying sector (79.0 avg), but more data points are needed for each sector to get a clearer picture.

One-line takeaway: Despite an average PaymentCheck score of 63.3/100, 4 companies scored less than 31/100, revealing a significant disparity in payment performance across the North East. late payment calculator