Hospitality and retail technology business owners most likely to close shops in 2024
Medical sector has the third highest number of businesses currently for sale, with hospitality and retail technology firms most likely to sell up next year, according to the UK Business Investment Report.
There are 4,300 registered medical businesses in the UK, and approximately 355 (one in every 12.11) are currently up for sale.
Topping the list was the hospitality sector with one in every 9.88 businesses up for sale, ahead of retail technology businesses (1 in 10.13).
At the bottom of the table were owners of agriculture businesses with just one in every 943 businesses up for sale. Transportation and software/IT business owners followed in a similar manner with one in every 802 businesses being up for sale.
To create the report, equity management platform Vestd analysed business data from sale platforms RightBiz and BusinessForSale and then compared the results to the number of registered businesses per industry.
Ifty Nasir, founder and CEO at Vestd, commented: “It’s been an incredibly challenging time for businesses over the past year and beyond and our data makes it all too clear that the cost-of-living crisis is continuing to hit businesses where it hurts, their bottom line.”
Businesses most likely to sell up in 2024
Industries | Total Number of Businesses | Number of Businesses for Sale | Proportion of businesses for sale |
Hospitality, Restaurants & Bars | 143,000 | 14,476 | One in every 9.88 businesses |
Technology (Retail) | 5,664 | 559 | One in every 10.13 businesses |
Medical | 4,300 | 355 | One in every 12.11 businesses |
Media | 10,603 | 839 | One in every 12.64 businesses |
Fashion & Beauty | 83,425 | 1644 | One in every 50.75 businesses |
Financial Services | 84,000 | 957 | One in every 87.77 businesses |
Retail | 548,000 | 5614 | One in every 97.61 businesses |
Sales & Marketing | 25,000 | 222 | One in every 112.61 businesses |
Business Services | 635,000 | 4066 | One in every 156.17 businesses |
Energy & Natural Resources | 30,798 | 150 | One in every 205.32 businesses |
Entertainment & Leisure | 275,000 | 1269 | One in every 216.71 businesses |
Manufacturing & Engineering | 244,000 | 942 | One in every 259.02 businesses |
Education & Training | 308,000 | 812 | One in every 379.31 businesses |
Construction | 914,000 | 1351 | One in every 676.54 businesses |
Property | 130,000 | 178 | One in every 730.34 businesses |
Software (IT) | 335,000 | 418 | One in every 801.44 businesses |
Transportation | 339,000 | 422 | One in every 803.32 businesses |
Agriculture | 215,000 | 228 | One in every 942.98 businesses |
Nasir has some tips for business owners who are planning an exit from the industry to make the process of selling as stress-free as possible.
“If you're planning to sell your business, make sure you've got your team engaged and are working to increase productivity. One way to encourage this is for business owners to share a piece of the pie with their employees through enterprise management incentives. This too can also provide welcome relief to the company tax bill and reward your employees in the process,” he said.
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