According to industry pundits, Sourcing City, all distributors appear to be experiencing a common trend of end users budget cutting, and a significant delay in the decision making for live projects.

Repeat projects are being scaled down and pressure has again increased on pricing and lead times across the industry.

Sourcing City say the feedback from UK and Ireland distributor companies indicates that the home market is down by around 20%, although the figure could be as high as 30% for many.

Most companies are surviving by cutting overheads, expenses and staffing.

And, say Sourcing City, a lot of companies seem to have lost interest in investment for the future at present, as survival has become the main priority.

They add, however, that a major UK distributor experienced significant growth during the last recession by proactively building relationships with new end user customers that were not being contacted by their usual distributors.

Distributors with a high internet presence seem to be faring better. The growth in this form of end user buying has consistently grown over recent years and appears to be holding up best.

The good news is that while the UK industry's core supplier base is feeling the pinch, it is still pretty much intact - at the moment.

Before the current recession, a significant number of suppliers were left smarting after buying stock at an unfavourable dollar rate. Dollar and euro exchange rates worsened further and, according to Sourcing City, suppliers must be sitting on significant unsold stocks which is burning cash.

The expectation was that this would lead to a number of company failures, but this has not been the case, as yet, they add.

Again, most suppliers seem to be surviving by cutting costs in overheads and staffing. A threat still exists however for those who have now cut costs.

Sourcing City predict that any real recovery is not expected until 2012. Because of the delay in end user decision making, suppliers are being pressured to turn orders round in ever shortening lead times. Some have even reported that they are having to pay overtime to deliver as required, even though their order book is actually reduced.

It is understandable that a number of UK business leaders would consider a break even position for this year as satisfactory.

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