SMEs look forward to the future
More than 70% medium enterprises and 63% small businesses share the opinion that 2015 will be a better year for their firms than the previous one. Only one out of ten businesses is of the opinion that the present year will be worse, and in this group of respondents there are mostly companies with headcount up to 50 persons. The most optimistic about the future are representatives of the FMCG and real property sectors, according to the results of the study conducted by the consulting boutique of Blackpartners on more than 2,000 businesses from the SME sector.
2,312 small and medium enterprises from all over Poland participated in the study conducted in January 2015. As many as 71% medium-sized enterprises (according to the EU classification) believe that the present year will see the improvement of their sales with at least the same margins maintained. The greatest optimists in this group are developers (78%) and the FMCG sector (76%). The opposite is true for the advertising sector (exclusive of Internet) and the non-residential building sector – with 57% and 63% optimists respectively. Developers know that price straits are already behind them.
The same message is slowly reaching the potential buyers of flats. If prices are not going to fall any more, they should start to look at the market more actively, before prices of real properties begin soaring. As regards the FMCG market, the domestic demand has been the driver behind the Polish economy for some time now and this situation should not change in the near future, says Mikołaj Lipiński, Partner in Blackpartners.
Small businesses are less optimistic, seeing the payment gridlocks still as their main problem. Although 63% of them believe that 2015 will witness the improvement of their results, as many as 18% are of the opposite opinion. Almost every fifth company thinks that the year will not bring any changes or has no opinion in this respect. The most optimistic sectors are production (68%) and services (66%). The most concerned about the future are the construction sector and firms that are strongly dependent on export. According to Mikołaj Lipiński, this fact stems from the continued uncertain political situation in our region and the major FX rate fluctuations.
One of the questions asked in the study concerned the wishes of entrepreneurs for 2015. The vast majority (56%) indicated the improvement of solvency, followed by the further simplification of the fiscal system (35%). It was the second edition of the Blackpartners study, in which 80% respondents from the previous year and 20% new businesses took part
