Small businesses won’t survive 2022 without Christmas bumper, research shows
Almost one fifth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will not survive 2022 without a Christmas bumper period, as around 36 per cent of businesses make 20 per cent of their annual revenue during the festive period.
Research from business insurance provider Simply Business has highlighted how two thirds of business owners believe a good Christmas period is a lifeline for their business, but the majority are not confident about their chances of a successful holiday season.
“While much of the UK prepares for a period of well-earned festive cheer, the feeling among small business owners is likely to be rather more sombre this Christmas,” Simply Business’s chief executive Alan Thomas said.
“Few have been harder hit in the last two years. They’ve faced the pandemic head-on, navigated supply shortages, and adapted to a new normal.
“They’ve shown resilience in abundance and done all they can to stay afloat. But without a bumper Christmas trading period, one in five small businesses will permanently close in 2022.”
December could make of break many small companies. Simply Business data shows that with a strong Christmas, a quarter of UK SMEs stated they will be back to pre-pandemic times within six months, while 21 per cent said Christmas would help them get fully back by the end of 2022.
Without a successful Christmas period, 18 per cent of companies would take longer to recover from Covid-19, while one in 10 would need to rethink their entire business.
“It’s vital we support small businesses this Christmas. And if anything, the pandemic has served as another reminder that we should be supporting them all year round,” Thomas said.
“They’re the lifeblood of our local communities, and with close to six million of them in the UK, together they contribute trillions of pounds in turnover. They are quite simply the backbone of the economy.”