Press Release

UK BUSINESSES APPEAR TO BE FIGHTING FOR SURVIVAL AS NUMBERS FAILING DROPS BY NEARLY 10% IN JANUARY

Equifax urges consumers to protect themselves

London, February 20th 2009 - Leading business information provider, Equifax, is reporting that Business Failures at the start of 2010 are continuing the downward trend that was seen at the end of last year.

"Whilst we must be extremely careful not to get carried away by these figures - they only represent one month - they do seem to suggest that the pace of the economic downturn is slowing" said Neil Munroe, External Affairs Director, Equifax.

The Equifax figures* show that overall there was a 9.2% decrease in businesses going under in the first month of the new decade, compared to the last month of the Noughties.

From a regional perspective Scotland had the best performance, with a 53.9% decline in failures, followed by London with a 19% drop in businesses going under in January compared to December and the West Midlands with a 17% drop. Three regions saw an increase in failures in January compared to December including the South West at 15.4%; the East Midlands at 12.3% and Wales at 4.5%.

The Services industry was the strongest performing market sector with a 15.3% decline in failures in the first month of the year compared to December. The Manufacturing and Wholesale sectors both saw increases of 8.2% and 3.9% respectively.

"The end of the year may well have signalled the most appropriate time from a financial accounting point of view for some businesses to be wound up and therefore pushed up the numbers in December slightly" continued Neil Munroe. "But we still feel these figures show some optimism and should be good news for general business confidence.

"Indeed, from the middle of 2009 onwards we could see that the rate of failures in businesses was slowing down, compared to the end of 2008 and the early part of 2009. The figures for the last Quarter showed a continuation of this trend, so we are not surprised to see the first month of 2010 sustaining this pattern.

"Clearly the UK economy is not out of the woods. So the businesses that have survived so far must continue to be very careful about how they manage their customer and supplier relationships to ensure they get paid on time and don't get caught out by bad debt or failure. But businesses right across the UK and across every sector should take real encouragement from this latest data.

*The calculations are based on the average number of businesses failing for each week of December (5 weeks) and January (4 weeks).

For interviews with Neil Munroe please call him direct on 07710 844518 Or the Equifax Press Office: Wendy Harrison, Margot Tomkinson or Jenny Staniforth, Office Number: 020 8977 9132, Wendy Harrison mobile: 07850 372469 wendy@harrisonsadler.com

Equifax 2010 UK Business Failures Report - January 2010

Regions

	*December 2009* *Total Number of business failures*	*December 2009* *Weekly Average*	*January 2010* *Total Number of business failures*	*January 2010* *Weekly Average*	*December 2009 compared to January 2010* *% change based on weekly average*
East Midlands	138	27.6	124	31	+12.3%
East England	124	24.8	93	23.25	-6.25%
London	619	123.8	401	100.25	-19%
North East	102	20.4	74	18.5	-9.3%
North West	324	64.8	232	58	-10.5%
Scotland	198	39.6	73	18.25	-53.9%
South East	526	105.2	381	95.25	-9.5%
South West	157	31.4	145	36.25	+15.4%
Wales	61	12.2	51	12.75	+4.5%
West Midlands	286	57.2	190	47.5	-17%
Yorkshire & Humberside	300	60	240	60	0%
TOTAL	2758	551.6	2004	501	-9.2%

Sectors

	*December 2009* *Total Number of business failures*	*December* *2009* *Weekly Average*	*January 2010* *Total Number of business failures*	*January* *2010* *Weekly Average*	*December 2009 compared to January 2010* *% change based on weekly average*
Construction	382	76.4	290	72.5	-5.1%
Manufacturing	268	53.6	232	58	+8.2%
Wholesale	89	17.8	74	18.5	+3.9%
Services	716	143.2	485	121.25	-15.3%
Retail	173	34.6	136	34	-1.7%
Transport & Communications	107	21.4	76	19	-11.2%