UK-listed companies issued 83 profit warnings in Q4 2022, bringing the total number of profit warnings to 305 in 2022 (50% higher than in 2021).

We were delighted to once again welcome Kirsten Tompkins back On the Spot. Kirsten is a Market Analyst and Content Creator in Turnaround and Restructuring at EY-Parthenon, the strategy consulting arm of EY.

As the coordinating editor and data analyst for EY-Parthenon’s Quarterly Analysis of UK Profit Warnings, Kirsten joins us to discuss the latest Q4 report, 'Universally Challenged'.

It's clear in the report that profit warnings are coming thick and fast from across the economy, as cost pressures pass through supply chains, falling confidence hits spending and contract renewals, and credit tightens. For the first time since 2009, credit tightening triggered over 10% of warnings in a single quarter in Q4 2022.

Unsurprisingly, consumer-facing companies still led profit warnings in Q4 2022. Changing consumer behaviour and the cost-of-living crisis will no doubt keep the pressure on consumer sectors throughout 2023.

SMEs have taken the main brunt of economic pressure so far. But in such febrile markets, stress is contagious, and no company or sector can really consider themselves immune...