A survey of many of the county’s business leaders shows a continued positive outlook for the Northamptonshire economy into 2015.
Conducted at the recent Northamptonshire Limited event, where more than 100 Northamptonshire business leaders and professionals heard results presented by Grant Thornton of the business performance of the county’s top companies, the survey highlighted that over 70% of the respondents anticipated greater than 10% revenue growth in the next 12 months.
Kevin Gale, practice leader at Grant Thornton Northampton, commented: “The opinions we gathered from the Northamp
A survey of many of the county’s business leaders shows a continued positive outlook for the Northamptonshire economy into 2015.
Conducted at the recent Northamptonshire Limited event, where more than 100 Northamptonshire business leaders and professionals heard results presented by Grant Thornton of the business performance of the county’s top companies, the survey highlighted that over 70% of the respondents anticipated greater than 10% revenue growth in the next 12 months.
Kevin Gale, practice leader at Grant Thornton Northampton, commented: “The opinions we gathered from the Northamptonshire Limited results event reinforces our report findings and suggests that this level of growth is in fact sustainable for the county.
“The Northamptonshire Limited report showed double digit growth in turnover and profit over two consecutive years. If the opinions of local businessmen and women are correct – we’ll be seeing a hat-trick of strong annual growth data this time next year.”
However, the survey also showed that the greatest constraint to growth is availability of skilled staff with 52% stating this as their biggest issue, followed by market competition (33%).
Grant Thornton will be inviting representatives from the companies included in Northamptonshire Limited to a follow-up roundtable event in the Autumn to discuss the rising issue of the ‘talent battle’, and the support local businesses need in order to address the problem.
Kevin Gale added: “The issue of talent, both attracting the right people to sustain growth and holding on to current staff, is a mounting pressure on businesses at the moment – especially those with ambitious expansion plans. The roundtable in the Autumn will be a great opportunity to continue this dialogue with local businesses and to identify the best action plans to put in place.”
The results also show that one in five of the companies surveyed expect wages to grow by a higher rate than inflation (more than 3%) over the next 12 months and that, surprisingly, only 6% of respondents expect business growth to come from international markets.
For a copy of the Northamptonshire Ltd report, published in May, please contact Rachel Cartwright of Grant Thornton on 01604 826 650 or e-mail .