UK Business Failures 'Highest For Five Years'

From the Press Association Tuesday January 4, 2000 08:42 am

Business failures jumped by 12% last year with the number of companies collapsing at its highest for five years, according to new figures.

Research by business information group Dun & Bradstreet revealed 43,365 companies went bankrupt or were wound up during 1999 - around 830 every week.

And D&B analysts warned more failures could be on the way as a "Millennium Bug effect" hit businesses.

Philip Mellor, senior analyst at D&B, said any real effects of the bug would be worsened by unscrupulous companies using the bug as an excuse for not paying bills on time.

"'The cheque has been lost in the computer' could be as familiar an excuse as 'the cheque has been lost in the post,"' Mr Mellor said.

-- Risteard Mac Thomais (uachtaran@ireland.com), January 04, 2000