January 2010 - Manufacturing

Andy Terry, MD of Century Art Ltd is in the manufacturing sector and has this overview of how he sees the manufacturing this year.

"Government policies combined with the buying strength of the major supermarkets has eroded margins to such an extent that it is becoming impossible to compete in manufacturing in the UK. We have seen a monthly decline still in UK manufacturing with customers either relocating to cheaper European countries or moving their purchases to the same countries. A classic example announced this weekend is Bosch closing their Welsh plant with 900 redundancies and relocating in Hungary. Doom and gloom unfortunately."

January 2010 - Supermarket retailing

Andrew Fear is the Managing Director of Farmer Fear - Provender Retail, operating a large Budgens supermarket.

My first reaction to the recession was to look hard at my business and cutting as many costs as I could. This can only be a short term solution or by definition you will cut your business to closure.

The second part is somewhat harder to get right. I always believe the first step to getting what you want from your business is to decide what you want. For me this was a simple answer - "Sales" unfortunately all my competitors had the same idea! Sales are harder to achieve with the overriding emphasis on cut price value in my sector. But when you are focused, you can then focus your team and even in the toughest of climates enthusiasm and energy makes you better than your competitors. Spending on your business in my mind is not as important as getting the right people in the business. If you can achieve this then the challenge of increasing sales and maintaining margin with controlled costs has proven to be achievable.

The year will inevitably involve higher interest rates, higher fuel costs and tighter consumer budgets so a strong focus on innovation in products and value will play a pivotal role in 2010. All our jobs have got a lot harder and thinking outside the box is now essential.