Risks and Uncertainties
We operate in a world with a heightened awareness of risk. In growing and developing our businesses we have made a conscious decision to try and minimise unrewarded risk. We have done this in the following ways:- We are growing a European business in order that we are less dependent on the success or otherwise of one country's economy.
- We service three sectors; leisure, care and retail, so that we are not dependent solely on the fortunes of one sector.
- We offer a spread of services across our three divisions, for example, transactional, advisory and support.
- We have a spread of work which deliberately covers both corporate and private clients.
That stated, whilst we have endeavoured to reduce risks we are not immune to movements in the global economy or changes in the economic or legislative environments in the countries in which we do business. In addition, such things as the psychological affect of terrorist attacks, banking crises and changes in behaviour pattern due to environmental based legislation can all impact our businesses in unexpected ways. All of our activities rely on the recruitment and retention of skilled individuals in an era of low unemployment. Some of our activities, such as software development, may need to compete for operatives on an international basis. Each of our divisions, though, faces certain risks that are unique to the services they provide and they are categorised under the divisional headings below:
The following can adversely affect our markets and
businesses:
Professional Business Services
- rises in interest rates or the expected rise thereof;
- lack of bank liquidity and more conservative lending criteria;
- increase in business insolvencies; and
- a slow down in the residential housing market.
Software Solutions
- late delivery of new software;
- downturn in consumer spending which would affect retailers' profitability. Apart from economic factors, such things as unusual weather patterns have been shown to have an effect on consumer spending;
- unforeseen technical issues
- unexpected technical innovations;
- anti competitive practices by global retail software vendors; and
- a failure in bought-in-software components.
Stock and Inventory Services
- changes in employee legislation, in particular the Working Time Directive;
- increase in transport costs; and
- trends towards a cashless society.
The above list of risks is meant to highlight, in addition to any noted elsewhere in this report, those we consider relevant today and is not intended to be an exhaustive list of risks facing the businesses.
