The tension is escalating inflation If it took more than a year (almost) it wasn’t in anyone’s plans, and after financial institutions and government started to take action to have to manage a double-digit CPI scenario for longer, it came. from companies. Forecasts for a difficult autumn -especially Yes Russia Cut off Europe’s gas tapThe German economy has contracted in recent weeks, and companies are already completing their own contingency plans, according to different employers’ associations.
” bye in the fall it will not be enough, it will restructurings“, warned Pimec president Antoni Cañete, in a recent interview in Prensa Ibérica, a newspaper belonging to the same group as El Periódico de Catalunya, as this newspaper is sending signals to the organization’s leadership that the curves are approaching. The same message this Monday, CEOE of the major Spanish employer’ “Many companies have to adjust their schedules and restructure their production plans in the face of rising energy costs and supplies,” warned in a statement.
The impact of this stubborn price increase on companies’ production lines is already being felt. According to the most recent business environment survey conducted by idescatone in four companies has seen their costs increase by 25% or more in the past year, with cost increases most frequently between 10% and 25% and the most affected sector industry. “Prices are rising and they will rise, which is inevitable. And consumption is very likely to fall in the fall, forcing all companies to focus their strategies on increasing the efficiency of their resources. Let them maintain their margins,” Pimec president points out Antoni Cañete.
Industry is the union that suffers most from the rise in energy prices and some supply shortages.p. which has already forced you to take measures to mitigate its effects. For example, one in four industrial companies had to stop production. Transferring higher costs to prices is the usual response in the economy as a whole, and is the way to soften the current situation, preferred by seven out of 10 companies.
“Many SMBs experience a mirage because they see more billing, but then when they talk to their agency they say they are in negative numbers. Because the costs skyrocketed”, the general secretary of Cepyme in Catalonia, Cesar Sanchez. “What can they do about it? Or raise prices or adjust templates. Everything indicates that employment will suffer more in the second half of the year than seasonal exposure,” he adds. On energy issues, as he explains, SMEs are renegotiating rates with energy companies and trying to invest in more efficient mechanisms. , but Sánchez points to the narrow margin they have in this way.
Margins at risk
The general rise in prices that has been depleting the purchasing power of workers for months now threatens to suffocate the profit margins of most of the SMB fabric. Something that is not currently happening among large companies, as reflected in the latest survey by the central balance sheet. Accordingly, in the first quarter of the year, half of the large company increased their profit margins despite the already galloping increase in IPC.
As stated in the annual Catalan SMEs yearbook published by Pimec, SMEs have saved the first year of the pandemic – the hardest part – by keeping their profit margins positive, but they have been cut in half. “We must put an end to this mentality among SMEs that it is better to die alone than to live together. Entrepreneurs must have an open mind to look for partners or consider merging in the coming months,” says Pimec president.