Press Release
ACCESS TO CREDIT STILL A PROBLEM FOR SME’S BUT CONFIDENCE IS HIGH FOR IRISH ECONOMY – N KILDARE CHAMBER’S FIRST EVER BUSINESS SENTIMENT SURVEY
– 230 Firms surveyed including 13 multinationals
– Multinationals indicate high degree of satisfaction but staff costs arise as potential barrier to growth
– 53% surveyed will take on more employees
– Access to credit still a key problem for SME’s
The first ever Business Sentiment Survey carried out by the country’s fourth largest Chamber of Commerce of 230 companies with 9,300 employees has found that 86% of those surveyed have confidence in the Irish economy with 84% experiencing an upturn in their business but 42% of them don’t have any confidence in the current Government’s ability to create new jobs, increase competitiveness and maintain business growth. The North Kildare Chamber also found that 53% of their members surveyed said they would be employing more people this year and 88% of them were quite positive in forecasting growth in their business.
Interestingly when asked what is the single biggest factor making growth difficult just over 30% of companies said lack of credit is still a problem which shaded taxation (27%) which was followed by Government Policy (17%), staff costs (15%) and lack of talent (11%). When it came to lack of credit it seems that SME’s are still not happy with the banks as they made up 60% of those singling this challenge out and their lack of happiness with the Dept of Finance was apparent as well as 67% of those that singled out taxation as a problem for growth were from this group also.
On the possibility of employing more people this year 68% of those that answered yes were SME’s with 26% being sole traders which was encouraging for the county. Further good news from the survey shows that half of the multinationals that took part (13) said they would be adding to their workforce which is encouraging and a good future indicator for the country as they currently employ 4,400 people in the county. Also encouraging for the economy is the fact that 88% of companies from the survey were forecasting growth in their business and again 60% of those forecasting growth were SME’s. When asked about the key factors for boosting market growth in the year ahead just over 60% of all companies said natural market growth would fuel growth followed by new markets at almost 50% and product innovation at just over 30%.
When the multinational element of the survey was broken out on its own all of them expressed confidence in the Irish economy and 85% said they were confident in the Government’s ability to maintain competitiveness and growth. Again 85% of this cohort said they were experiencing an upturn in the economy, 92% were forecasting growth this year and just over 60% said they’d be employing more people.
CEO for North Kildare Chamber Allan Shine said “It’s great to see the multinationals continuing to thrive throughout our innovation corridor along most of the length of our territory with the likes of Kerry, Intel, Pfizer and Hewlett Packard. We have plenty of appropriately zoned land for more expansion for this sector and we’ve been extremely disappointed in the IDA to date who only facilitated one FDI visit to the county in the last 12 months which is just not good enough for one of the main industrial supporting counties for Dublin and the country.”
“It is obvious from the survey that our SME base needs further ongoing support so we intend to continue to support them through our first ever ‘Meet the Buyer’ event on April 22nd where companies can meet procurement teams from huge companies – Intel, Kerry, Maynooth University, Kildare County Council, HSE, KWETB, Bord na Mona to advertise their services and products.”
North Kildare Chamber is the fourth largest Chamber in the country with 320 members. The survey took place on Thursday and Friday 19th and 20th February and 230 participants made up of 82 sole traders, 135 SME’s and 13 multinationals.
Survey results:
- Do you have confidence in the Irish economy?
o Yes – 86% No – 14%
o 57% of respondents that said Yes were SME’s, 37% Sole Traders, 6% Multinationals
o 72% of respondents that said No were SME’s, 27% Sole Traders
- Do you have confidence in the Irish Government’s ability to create new jobs, increase competitiveness and maintain business growth?
o Yes – 58% No – 42%
o 53% of respondents that said Yes were SME’s, 39% Sole Traders, 7% multinationals
o 67% of respondents that said No were SME’s, 31% Sole Traders
- Are you experiencing an upturn in the economy with your business?
o Yes – 84% No – 16%
o 61% of respondents that said Yes were SME’s, 34% Sole Traders, 5% multinationals
o 52% of respondents that said No were SME’s, 42% Sole Traders, 6% multinationals
- Are you forecasting growth in your business this year?
o Yes – 88% No – 12%
o 60% of respondents that said Yes were SME’s, 34% Sole Traders, 6% multinationals
o 50% of respondents that said No were SME’s, 46% Sole Traders, 4% multinationals
- What do you expect to be the key factors for boosting business growth this year? (allowed choice of two of the below)
o 61% – Natural market growth
o 48% – New markets
o 32% – Product innovation
o 14% – Lower costs (staff, rent, rates, utilities etc)
o 5% – Do not expect business growth
- Will you employ more people this year?
o Yes – 53% No – 47%
o 68% of respondents that said Yes were SME’s, 26% Sole Traders, 5% multinationals
o 59% of respondents that said No were SME’s, 36% Sole Traders, 5% multinationals
- What is the single biggest factor making growth difficult for your business?
o 30% – Lack of credit
- 60% SME’s, 38% Sole traders
o 27% – Taxation
- 67% SME’s, 33% Sole traders
o 17% – Government policy
- 51% SME’s, 45% Sole traders
o 15% – Staff costs (demands for higher wages/pay increases)
- 66% SME’s, 28% Sole traders
o 11% – Lack of talent
- 62% SME’s, 28% Sole traders
RESULTS BREAKDOWN OF 13 MULTINATIONALS IN COUNTY KILDARE
- Do you have confidence in the Irish economy?
o 100% said yes
- Do you have confidence in the Irish Government’s ability to create new jobs, increase competitiveness and maintain business growth?
o 85% said yes
- Are you experiencing an upturn in the economy with your business?
o 85% said yes
- Are you forecasting growth in your business this year?
o 92% said yes
- Will you employ more people this year?
o 62% said yes
- What is the single biggest factor making growth difficult for your business?
o Biggest factor was staff costs – 37% of respondents