Retail Week Interiors - Plimsoll warns efficiency will cause job culls

Analysis from research house Plimsoll forecasts UK shopfitters may need to axe up to 5,400 jobs over the next 12 months as 110 companies, identified by the report as 'highly efficient', outperform their competitors.

These companies deliver 59 per cent more sales and three times more profit per person than the average UK shopfitting company -£191,000 compared with£120,000. Most at risk of being left behind are 79 companies that only generate£70,000 per employee.

Plimsoll senior analyst David Patisson said directors of companies with low productivity 'must act now to catch up with the leaders'. He said: 'For 28 of them, it's a question of pure survival. The remaining 51 are fundamentally well-run companies, with only low productivity letting them down.'