How ambitious are UK companies?
64% of UK firms say they hope to grow moderately in size in the next year. Nearly half (49%) of rapidly growing businesses say their objective is to continue doing so (UK average: 11%). Smaller businesses are much more likely than others to want to stay the same size.
The majority of companies surveyed are well established, with 81% having been in business for 10 years or more. Micro-businesses tend to be slightly younger, but 70% are still at least a decade old. The sector with the youngest profile is rapidly growing businesses, where 41% have been operating for less than 10 years.
How much money do UK companies make?
29% of UK companies turned over £2m or more in the last financial year.
Almost a fifth of companies surveyed (19%) did not know what their annual turnover was and 11% refused to answer the question.
How does that compare to 2005?
45% of businesses reported that their turnover had grown either moderately or rapidly in the past year, and for 40% it had stayed the same.
The picture for smaller companies is less positive, however, with 47% staying the same and 21% reporting a reduction in turnover (UK average 16%).
Compared with 2005, UK businesses are more likely to have grown smaller or stayed the same size in the past year.
Do UK companies export their goods and services?
70% of UK companies do not export any goods or services.
This figure is lower among larger companies, where only 41% have no overseas trade. However, this sector also had the largest number of no responses to this question (20%), making it difficult to draw any firm conclusions. That said, these figures do reflect the numerical importance of micro-businesses within the UK economy.
Rapidly growing businesses are much more likely to export their goods and services than other companies, with 46% saying some percentage of their turnover comes from export sales.