ALMOST a quarter of the region’s small businesses says they are being forced to pass on extra costs to customers because of the sky-high price of fuel.
More than seven out of 10 small firms said they were feeling the pinch due to prices at the pumps and four in 10 said they were looking at ways to grow their business to help them cope with the rising cost of fuel.
The research, by Bibby Financial Services, found that 83% of small firms in the North considered fuel prices to be the key transport issue faced by their business.
Mike Heslop, who runs NE Express, a courier business based in Houghton-le-Spring, has introduced a fuel surcharge to help the business cope with the costs.
“Fuel has gone up since this time last year by around 20%, which has had a serious impact,” he said.
“We have increased our turnover by 20% but our profit margins remain the same.
“We have introduced a fuel surcharge on all customers of 5.8%. We haven’t had any negative reactions from anybody, but that is probably because everybody has to fuel up themselves.
“It is a commercial decision -– it is business critical. You worry what effect it is going to have, but we don’t have a choice.”
