Key findings from the UK report
Download the UK Enterprise Survey Report 2011 (PDF 2MB/32 pages)
Growth
Since the UK emerged from recession the proportion of businesses reporting growth has recovered, although it has not yet returned to 2007 levels.
Other key findings:
Six in ten businesses expect to grow their turnover over the coming 12 months.
Roughly half of growth in the economy will come from the UK’s c.5,890 large (250+ employee) firms. This suggests that policy-makers need to give at least as much consideration to the needs of larger businesses as to those of smaller businesses.
Two in ten businesses expect to grow their turnover by 10% or more over the coming 12 months. These higher growth businesses are hard to spot, as they have surprisingly similar characteristics to businesses in general. This represents a challenge to policy-makers seeking to direct support at firms with ambitions to expand.
Higher growth businesses are more likely to be exporters expecting to grow overseas sales, which undoubtedly explains their high propensity to be more positive about globalisation than those not expecting to grow.
The majority of growth in employment in the private sector is likely to be created by SMEs.
Increasing profitability and turnover are the key objectives for businesses over the next 12 months.
Attitudes to the business friendliness of the UK regulatory and tax environment have become less favourable since 2010, especially for medium-sized firms.
Competition in the marketplace and customer demand are the other main challenges to business performance at this time.
Globalisation
The perceived likely impact of continued globalisation remains more positive than negative, although the proportion of businesses believing that the overall impact will be negative has risen since 2010.
Other key findings:
The majority of businesses have some form of global business engagement, primarily through imports and exports, and this remains strongly related to company size.
The proportion of exporters who report growth in international sales has recovered to 2007 levels but is not expected to rise over the next 12 months.
Overall, 7% of non-exporters claim they are definitely planning to start exporting over the next two years.
Businesses in the Production industries are more likely than those in Services to be globally engaged, with manufacturers more likely than businesses in other sectors to export or import.
