While the West Midlands outperforms the UK average, the wide range in scores, from 100 to below 20, indicates significant disparity in payment practices across businesses in the region. The dominance of financial services among the best performing sectors is noteworthy, perhaps reflecting greater financial discipline.
The top payers demonstrate exemplary payment behavior, achieving scores near perfect marks:
These firms, spanning asset management, hospitality, mortgage expertise, energy, and general business, show that prompt payment isn't limited to a specific industry.
The bottom payers show significant room for improvement, with scores indicating potential for consistently late payments or other problematic behaviors:
The presence of large, established companies like ZF Automotive, GKN Aerospace and Mondelez in this list is notable, suggesting that size doesn't necessarily equate to good payment ethics. Small businesses working with these companies may experience considerable cash flow difficulties. If you're dealing with late payments, you can use this late payment calculator to help.
Sector performance is dominated by the following:
With only a single company representing Media and Publishing and Travel, the high averages might not be representative, however Financial Services, with 18 companies, shows a solid trend of good payment practice in the West Midlands.
While the West Midlands outperforms the national average by 13.3 points, some companies are dragging down the average significantly, as shown by the lowest score of 18.93 out of 100.
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