Medium-sized firms are the key to growth
THE BUSINESS world is hiding a “squeezed middle” that should be encouraged to expand faster, according to research published today.
Medium-sized businesses generate 16 per cent of jobs but represent just one per cent of UK companies, CBI figures cited by Deloitte show.
And a lack of capital and trust caused by a nervous post-crisis market means these firms are failing to threaten the large-caps, Deloitte argues.
“Only one of the UK’s largest 100 companies did not exist prior to 1990, and 55 per cent were established more than 100 years ago,” the report’s authors point out.
Carphone Warehouse, founded in 1989, is one of the youngest firms to have been in the FTSE 100. In the US, meanwhile, newly formed tech powerhouses dominate the large-cap markets.
“Despite all the economic doom and gloom, there is a cadre of UK businesses – an emerging British Mittelstand – which have quietly defied recession and uncertainty to post revenue growth of £40bn and created over 1,000 jobs per week over the last three years,” said Deloitte head of insights Chris Gentle.