Continued Flattening of Confidence for Plastics Firms

The British Plastics Federation (BPF) has published its latest survey of Business Conditions which has revealed further flattening of business confidence effecting expectations of sales turnover, profitability and investment intensions over the next 12 months.

The survey was conducted in January and February 2015 and attracted responses from 93 Member firms.

“Overall performance remains robust”, said Philip Law, the BPF's Director General “but the world is currently a very uncertain place and it’s hardly surprising that manufacturers are exercising cautious judgement and to some extent sitting on their hands. The international political situation is volatile, potentially impacting the supply of raw materials and energy sources and the outcome of the general election only adds to the haze.” 

Whilst two thirds of the firms surveyed were predicting an increase in UK sales turnover only 37% predicted an increase in profitability, which is significantly down from 46% only one year ago and is the lowest we have seen in over two years.

The survey showed that the construction sector was performing extremely well with all pipes and windows firms surveyed predicting an increase in sales turnover over the next 12 months.  Polymer distributors were however more pessimistic with only 40% predicting an increase.

“Despite conservative predictions of future profitability, the survey showed that 52% of firms were planning to increase staffing levels over the next 12 months; the highest ever recorded in our survey,” commented Law. “The issue, however, is that firms simply cannot attract the right staff and once again nearly half of those surveyed stated they were having difficulty recruiting. This is something we are looking at tackling head on via our newly established ‘Skills and Education Committee”. 

ENDS

For all media enquiries, BPF logos and images please contact Laura Hindley, Communications and Industrial Issues Executive on [email protected] or 0207 457 5043 

Notes for editors
The British Plastics federation (BPF) is the UK trade association for the Plastics Industry – representing the whole supply chain including polymer producers, distributors, additives suppliers, machinery manufacturers, processors and recyclers.

The full Business Conditions Survey report can be found at https://www.bpf.co.uk/about_the_bpf/business_conditions_survey.aspx