UK firms’ summer drama

We Brits are a funny bunch. We moan about our cold, wet climate, but as soon as a spot of good weather comes our way everyone goes berserk.

Experts caution us against venturing outside in case we are blanched by the sun’s cruel rays. There are travel warnings (always take water with you), hose pipe bans (where did all the rain go?) and crime waves (all those doors and windows left open).

But front and centre in all this hysteria are the nation’s entrepreneurs. You’d think we’d just had our four-minute warning the way papers report how the weather will impact businesses.

With temperatures spiralling towards 33 degrees centigrade (hotter than Bangkok this week) the Centre for Economics and Business Research says lost productivity could cost the British economy £162m every day.

Firms lose an extra £4m a day because of delays to public transport caused by the hot weather or because passengers avoid the unbearable rush hour heat; £15m goes awry through sickies, while £6m is lost because people spend less in shops.

So we’re £190m a day down. Ouch.

Then there’s this warning from Brett Raynes, managing director at Backup Direct: “Many small businesses equip themselves to react in the event of damage to their IT systems from fire or flood, but have even half of them factored the effects of a long, hot summer into their continuity plans?”

I somehow doubt it, but Raynes is adamant that your servers could melt if the heatwave keeps up much longer.

It’s not all bad news, however. David Whiffen, the ice cream buyer for Sainsbury’s, told The Times newspaper: “We’re expecting the best week for ice cream since the heat wave of 2006.”

He added that lollies and ice cream sales were double last year’s total during the period, and were 75 per cent up on just a week ago. 

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By Dan Matthews  on   Jul 01,2009

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Keywords

weather    summer    hot    hot weather business    seasonal business   

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