Cost of living: 'Businesses can't cope with rising costs'

Businesses say they are facing increased costs but are trying not to pass it on to customers

Inflation is at its highest rate for 30 years and fuel costs are set to rise from April. The increase in bills is not just hitting households but businesses are also seeing their costs rise. What are companies doing and will their customers also see their prices go up?

'It seems never-ending at the moment'

Catering supplier, Matt Hammond, says he will have to start passing on increased costs to customers

Matt Hammond, business development manager at Savoy Foods, a catering supplies company in Great Yarmouth, says "it's very difficult at the moment".

He says: "We're trying to juggle all these increases, whether it's on the fuel, electricity, especially from the suppliers, were getting constant increases from the suppliers.

"So we're having to look at all aspects of the business to try and counteract some of the increases that are coming our way.

"We have had to pass some increases on to the customers because we can't sustain it any more."

The Norfolk catering supply company says some of the cost increase has come from suppliers

Mr Hammond says the situation is "very tough" for businesses.

"With the pandemic and now these increases that are coming in, it seems as if it's never-ending at the moment so we're trying to keep morale high in the workforce."

He says the company will be looking at "little things within the business that we think we can reduce even just a few percent which will help but we're running out ideas to try and reduce our costs".

"I just think we've all got to work hard and accept it," he adds.

'Margins are slashed quite dramatically'

Stuart Gibbs from a concrete company says their cost rises began with Brexit

Subsea Protection Systems, a specialist concrete company, operates across the UK and is based in Great Yarmouth.

Stuart Gibbs, its finance director, says: "The costs since Brexit and Covid and just everywhere have really gone up quite badly.

"We've seen concrete go up, timber, our rope... obviously with energy bills going up in the future that's going to put on even more pressure and prices will rise again.

"It's very difficult because margins are slashed quite dramatically and sometimes we're making loses and sometimes we've got to just pass it on to clients, which can lead us to lose some work from that."

Building firms have also been hit by supply problems and shortages of raw materials

He says the government could not have introduced the planned rise in National Insurance in April to help businesses, and provide "more help for the energy [costs] and help across the board".

"Businesses can't cope, it's getting to the stage where a lot of them will be going under because of this," he adds.

'I can only see this getting worse'

Engineering business manager Tom Kimber-Smith says firms are all facing similar challenges

Tom Kimber-Smith, manager at Great Yarmouth firm Lion Engineering, says their work is picking up since the pandemic but they are "seeing astronomical costs".

"It's a problem but it's a good problem to have, during the pandemic it was bad problem with not enough work and having to let people go," he says.

But he says the business is "struggling with increased costs, with energy bills, raw material, consumables, we're trying not to pass this on to the customer and that's a fight we're having every day".

"To become competitive in the market that we're in is very difficult, we're trying to swallow as much costs as we can with the understanding eventually we'll have to pass this on," he says.

Rising energy costs are hitting businesses as well as households

Mr Kimber-Smith says: "It's very disheartening, our customers are all in the same position as us.

"It's definitely going to get harder over the next 12 months and I can only see this getting worse.

"I can't see what the answer is, let's just try and survive and get through the next 12 months."