The results of the latest QCA Small & Mid-Cap Sentiment Index provide an insight into how small and mid-sized quoted companies have responded to the crisis and what their future plans are.
132 smaller quoted companies and 45 advisory firms were surveyed in April 2020, at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic and shutdown.
Key findings:
- Lowest level of optimism in the UK economy recorded in nearly ten years of the history of the survey.
- 43% of small and mid-sized quoted companies say they will decrease jobs in the next 12 months, although 31% will increase.
- There is a stark drop in expectations regarding turnover from 14.4% mean expected growth in Q4 2019 to a contraction of -5.5% in Q2 2020.
- 56% of respondent companies have furloughed staff, and 28% have laid-off people, but companies are also adapting and 49% have undertaken new ways of engaging with stakeholders and 21% have offered new products or services to customers.
- 77% of companies rate the Government’s response to the crisis as either positive or very positive, but there are critical responses on how the banks are implementing the Government’s Coronavirus debt financing schemes
- Nearly half (47%) of companies say that this crisis has revealed aspects of how their business is run that could be improved. Respondents believe that many enforced changes for businesses will be here to stay, including increased remote working and less office occupancy.
Thank you to those QCA members that took part in the survey.
See the press release here.
Past waves of this survey can be viewed here.
