All Categories
Featured
Table of Contents
Trading businesses were asked how their turnover in January 2026 compared with December 2025, leaving out any seasonal trading. Information are outlined in the middle of the period of each wave. Almost a third (31%) of trading companies reported that their turnover had decreased in January 2026 compared to the previous month.
Nevertheless, the motions are broadly in line with those observed around this time in previous years, with peaks in December followed by little falls in January. The markets with the greatest proportion reporting that turnover decreased in January 2026 were: the lodging and food service activities market (52%, which is a 21 portion point increase from December 2025) the other services market (45%) the arts, home entertainment and entertainment market (40%) Roughly 16% of trading organizations reported that their turnover increased in January 2026, which was a 3 portion point increase compared to December 2025.
For trading organizations with 10 or more staff members, 33% reported that their turnover had decreased, which was broadly stable compared with December and January 2025. More than one in five (23%) services reported that their turnover had actually increased, up 2 percentage points compared to December 2025. Generally, the proportion of businesses reporting that their turnover increased correlated to the size of the company.
How AI Reshapes British Industry GrowthThe exception to this was the percentage for services with 250 or more employees, which was 25%, and 5 percentage points lower than December 2025 (30%). Trading services were asked how they expect their turnover to change in the coming month. This can then be utilized to predict how business's turnover will really change once that calendar month concludes.
Patterns between expected turnover and actual turnover have actually broadly moved in the exact same direction, the motions for expectations tend to be bigger. Care must be taken when analyzing expectations concerns, as the employees responding on behalf of organizations might not have full oversight of all of their service's future expectations.
More than one in five (21%) trading organizations expect their turnover to increase in March 2026. This is a 6 portion point rise from February 2026 but was broadly stable compared to expectations for March 2025 (22%). The percentage of trading companies anticipating an increase in January 2026 was 13%, while the proportion that reported an actual increase in turnover in January 2026 was 16%, suggesting a minor pessimism in services expectations.
The trends have broadly followed each other because the concerns were presented in April 2022. The outcomes for March 2026 follow the trend from previous years, with the percentage of services anticipating turnover to increase peaking after a decline in January. Bigger businesses were more most likely to expect an increase in turnover in March, with the percentage varying from 20% for businesses with 0 to 9 workers, to 42% for companies with 100 to 249 employees.
For presentational purposes, some response choices have actually been removed. Information are outlined in the middle of the duration of each wave.
Essential Management Insights for 2026 British FirmsThe proportion of trading companies that expected a decrease in January 2026 was 25%, while the proportion that reported a real reduction in turnover in January 2026 was 31%. The percentage of companies anticipating turnover to decrease for a particular month ahead of time has stayed substantially lower than the proportion of companies reporting a real reduction because month considering that April 2022.
Expectations for turnover to reduce have consistently followed the exact same trend, as actual reported turnover reduces throughout this time. Trading businesses were asked what challenges, if any, were impacting their turnover in early February 2026. Around 3 in 10 (30%) trading organizations reported that economic uncertainty was having an effect on their turnover, which was broadly steady with early January 2026.
This is broadly steady compared to early January 2026 and 2 percentage points down compared with a year back. For trading organizations with 10 or more employees, cost of labour was the most regularly reported challenge, at 36%. This was broadly steady compared to early January 2026. Companies with 10 to 49 staff members were more likely to report expense of labour as an obstacle than services with 250 or more employees (37%, compared with 20%). One in 5 (20%) trading services with 10 or more staff members indicated that they were not currently experiencing any turnover difficulties in early February 2026. More details on financial performance, including all response options categorised by market and size band, are readily available in our accompanying dataset.
Latest Posts
How Digital Innovation Optimises Workflows for 2026
Accelerating IT Success for UK Leaders
Securing Green Value Through ESG Supply Chains
