Has 2011 brought a new confidence to the independent retail sector?
There may be a new confidence growing in the independent retail sector as more small stores are starting to invest again in capital projects.
According to BCA who specialise in small and micro business finance, there has been a definite and encouraging increase in the number of capital expenditure applications in the last two months to fund projects like refurbishment or investment in new equipment.
“Over the past year we have seen small businesses hunkering down. They have been unsure of how the economy was going to develop so their requests for finance have been for things like stock and marketing; they have been wary of investing too heavily in the big capital purchases,” says Richard Morley, director of BCA.
“Just prior to Christmas we began to see an increase in applications from businesses applying for advances to invest in capital projects. We thought it might have been stimulated by a desire to beat the VAT increase, but this trend has continued through January.”
The number of BCA’s advances to the general retail sector has increased by 56% year on year and in 2010 the company injected £5 million of cash into over 400 small retail outlets.
“We hope that the increase in requests for capital expenditure demonstrates the beginnings of a new confidence in the British economy with business owners feeling they have the long term stability to enable them to invest in the continued growth and improvement of their companies.”
