MANY Yorkshire firms will have to bite the bullet and axe staff to avoid their businesses going under, it is claimed.
The stark warning was sounded in the wake of a string of high-profile business failures – including retailers Land of Leather, Woolworths, Empire Direct and the Barratts and PriceLess shoes chains.
Ian Brown, an insolvency expert with accountancy firm Deloitte, said many economic commentators believed the crop of casualties was only the tip of the crisis, adding: “Businesses should take this as an amber light to avoid becoming yet another statistic.
“This may require difficult decisions to be made over staffing and other overheads and a curtailment of all non-essential expenditure. Things are going to become worse before they get better and this makes proper contingency planning vital.”
His comments came as figures from Deloitte showed there were 318 administrations in Yorkshire and Humber last year against 294 in 2007.
