Manufacturing insolvencies

UK manufacturing spans food and drink, textiles, chemicals, metals, machinery, vehicles and electronics. Manufacturers carry the classic squeeze of a physical-goods business: large stocks of raw materials and finished goods, expensive plant, and customers who often pay on long terms while suppliers want paying sooner.

That working-capital gap is where most manufacturing insolvencies begin. A lost contract, a customer that fails owing money, an energy-price shock or cheaper imports can each tip a factory from profit into a cash crisis, and the fixed cost of the plant makes it hard to shrink quickly.