Shropshire Star

Businesses welcome cuts to interest rates

One of the UK’s oldest hot dip galvanizing specialists has welcomed the Bank of England's decision to slash interest rates.

Published
Sophie Williams, finance director at Corbetts the Galvanizers

Corbetts the Galvanizers, which employs about 100 people at its Telford facility, said the move will help businesses such as itself which are looking to grow.

The Bank of England has slashed interest rates from 0.75 per cent to 0.25 per cent in an emergency move to counter the "economic shock" of the coronavirus outbreak.

Sophie Williams, finance director at Corbetts the Galvanizers, said: "We have had a strong start to the year in terms of new business and we are just about to press the button on some new capital and are in the processing of exploring finance options that should now be more in our favour.

"Giving the market more confidence in the face of coronavirus can only be a good thing and this, combined with a budget that appears to be supportive of SMEs, can only be good news.

"When it comes to Covid-19, we only currently have one customer directly affected from the lockdown in China and, if anything the disease, has seen an unexpected rise in orders for us.

"It has also had a positive impact on the commodity market for buyers. One example is a fall in zinc prices and we have reacted quickly to lock in our suppliers into cheaper prices for longer.

"As you would expect, we are also monitoring the utilities markets very closely off the back of the oil price slump. A lot of our contracts are up for renewal shortly and, with energy being a significant overhead – I’m sure there could be potential savings to be secured here.”

Karen Whitehead, of KEW Accountants in Telford, works with dozens of small to medium-sized businesses across the county, and agreed the interest rates cut was a positive move.

She said: "The interest rate cut is definitely a step in the right direction to help reduce costs for small and large businesses. But some businesses are really going to struggle if the country is forced to go into some sort of lock down as they have in Italy.

"There will be businesses that go bankrupt especially if they are just recovering from the recent floods, and for many businesses it is likely that redundancies will be necessary.

"For those that lose their jobs there needs to be some help from the mortgage providers in freezing mortgage payments, and the Government should consider giving help in the form of housing benefit to pay the interest on mortgages – which would be a lot cheaper than paying for their rent if their home is repossessed."

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