38 HOT 100
Analysis THE TRUE IMPACT OF
CORONAVIRUS IS HARD TO PREDICT by Mark Schofield
director at Haworths Chartered Accountants
This year’s Hot 100 couldn’t come at a more pivotal time. As businesses adapt to their ‘new normal’, we must continue to shine a spotlight on our county’s success stories and give inspiration to those companies whose ambitions are to follow suit.
Britain’s appetite to keep building and making saw a spike in construction and manufacturing, with several new entrants seeing these two powerhouses dominate more than half of this year’s list.
These flourishing sectors, in turn, saw the food and drink industry effectively muscled out – despite soaring up the rankings in 2019 – as Lancashire’s food producers and culinary talent once again fell out of the top 100.
On a more local level, Preston remained a hot bet for entrepreneurship, yet a boom throughout the Fylde Coast, and Blackpool in particular, demonstrated growing confidence in our seaside towns.
Unfortunately, we cannot review this year’s list without discussing the present-day impact of Covid-19, which may likely result in a Hot 100 that looks considerably different in 12 months’ time.
Many of the sectors that Lancashire is best known for – mainly as a cluster for aerospace, automotive, hospitality and tourism – are facing considerable change, and the downward curve caused by the pandemic’s disruption will likely morph into an economic recession.
Yet out of adversity does come opportunity. Lancashire as an international manufacturing centre has always been outward looking, yet Covid-19 could prompt businesses to re-shore jobs.
Those manufacturing functions traditionally delivered in China and India, for example, could be brought back to the UK as a key
component to revive our economy, and Lancashire is well poised to capitalise on this.
A number of businesses within our client portfolio are also recording unprecedented growth over recent weeks. Many of these haven’t diversified, rather that the changes caused by Covid-19 have meant their products and services are now in high demand.
Our annual Hot 100 project has already spanned a recession and its recovery, continued Brexit uncertainty, and now a global pandemic – something that few would have predicted or planned for.
Lancashire came surging out of the last economic downturn, mainly led by engineering and aerospace. Yet with Covid-19 bringing aerospace quickly down to earth and the sector likely to be hardest hit by the global pandemic, we simply cannot predict the true impact of coronavirus on our county and its business community.
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