7,500 Scottish companies showing high signs of distress.
My thanks to Donald Shanks for sharing some interesting albeit worrying statistics with me yesterday.
In excess of 4,500 of those businesses are balance sheet insolvent with a similar number showing signs of liquidity pressures.
A further analysis of the top 10 industry sectors that are experiencing difficulties threw up a surprise for me. I would have expected Accommodation and Food Service Activities to be at number one, but they only appear at number 6 on the list.
The dubious honour of being top of this league goes to Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities, with both Construction and Wholesale, Retail and Repairs taking silver and bronze positions respectively.
These figures are based on company accounts filed by the end of December 2020. It will be interesting to see what trends emerge the further we get into 2021.
Tough times ahead for many – but I think most of us knew that already.