Research highlights slow payment FTSE companies

Travel company Tui,  drinks conglomerate Diageo and engine maker Rolls-Royce are among the slowest FTSE 350 listed groups to pay their suppliers, according to new research.

A report by Good Business Pays campaign has named and shamed the top 10 slowest payers in the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 indices, using the latest information submitted under the Duty to Report regulations to the Government.

It found that defence industry giant Meggitt, is the worst late payer, taking an average of 132 days to pay and failing to pay 85% of invoices within agreed contract terms.

Bulmers and Magners maker C&C group is next up with 120 days and travel operator TUI follows with 101 days.

Diageo is in fifth place, taking an average 84 days, with Premier Foods and Rolls Royce both taking 76 days, and pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline in tenth place with 75 days.

The research found that some companies take more than four months to settle bills.

Around 50,000 businesses go bust each year due to cash flow problems caused by late payments, according to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). It is the biggest single cause of business failure.

Slow and late payments hit small businesses and hold back the UK economy. According to the Federation of Small Businesses, around 50,000 small businesses close every year due to late payments.

Good Business Pays said “We’re calling on the UK’s leading businesses to change their practices and pay suppliers fairly and quickly – the technology already exists to enable instant payments, so there is no excuse. We have taken data published by the government and combined it with surveys and feedback to give you easy to use charts and metrics on the payment performance of many large UK businesses.”