Citation
(2001), "The cheque is in the post", Work Study, Vol. 50 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2001.07950fab.003
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2001, MCB UP Limited
The cheque is in the post
The cheque is in the post
The Better Payment Practice Group (BPPG) welcomed the recent survey from Dun & Bradstreet which has found that UK companies are the second fastest in Europe for paying their bills. UK companies are paying their bills, on average, only 14.2 days late. Belgian companies had the worst average payment performance at 18.4 days late, followed by the Dutch who average 17.7 days late. The results were drawn from a survey of 1.3 million companies across six European countries.
The survey also found that smaller companies pay their bills more promptly than larger companies with 41.5 per cent of companies with fewer than five employees, and 32.6 per cent of companies with five to 49 employees, paying their bills early. In comparison, only 19.9 per cent of companies with 50 to 249 employees and 10.6 per cent of large companies (more than 250 companies) pay their bills early.
Kurt Obermaier of the Credit Services Association and a member of the BPPG says: "UK companies used to have the reputation for being one of the slowest payers in Europe. It is therefore very encouraging that we have secured second place in the league table. Yet despite this success, there is no doubt that there is a lot of work to do in addressing credit management techniques".