New research suggests rising fuel and transport costs have become a significant challenge for business in Logan and the Scenic Rim as they look to the year ahead.
It comes as the latest MYOB Business Monitor reports confidence in the economy has slipped over the past six months.
David Kassulke
David Kassulke from the Beaudesert Chamber of Commerce says that the results of the survey were to be expected.
“My response is that that does not surprise me we live in quite uncertain times. Business conditions have been challenging.”
The outlook varies across industries with the finance and insurance sectors anticipating an improvement (70%), while construction and trades are the most pessimistic (41%).
“I would have thought that the biggest setback sourcing was sourcing building materials (for the tradies). December 2019 was the worst year for our cattle industry down here.
“Cattle prices have risen by 40% in the last 12 months. Since 5 years ago, that’s tripled.
“Processing plants down on workers. Talking about positive sides, unemployment has seen a record low.
“Farmers planting crops are putting them back in because there’s no one to harvest those crops.”
Emma Fawcett from MYOB says they’ve noticed a change in what businesses are most concerned about.
“This new MYOB data is giving us an insight into how Australia’s small and medium businesses are thinking about the next 12 months.
“What it reveals is that small businesses are not as confident as they were six months ago. 53% are anticipating an improvement in the next 12 months, but that represents a 4% decline from this time last year.
“The level of optimism varies greatly by industry. 70% of the finance and insurance sector are anticipating an economic improvement over the next 12 months, but only 41% of the construction and trade industry are confident of an improvement.
“What we found interesting was that 68% of the transport, postal and warehouse think the economy is going to improve, which could be due to the online shopping we’re doing during COVID.”
Interestingly, for the first time since COVID hit Australian shores, the pandemic is not the foremost pressure facing Australian small business.
“The survey shows that fuel prices have returned to the top spot, causing 41% of respondents extreme or quite a lot of pressure, the pandemic is second at 34% and the cost of utilities at 31%.
“We use a lot of fuel on our transport fleet, 60 cents a litre for diesel, today is a dollar 72. Here we’re paying about 2 dollars a litre, in America they’re paying 4 dollars a gallon which is 4 tomes the prince.
“Small businesses are entrepreneurial, and they haver struggling. Strength will go to workers in terms.”
1 in 4 respondents saw their revenue increase which is great, 1 in 3 say their revenue has fallen, and 2 out of 5 of all small and medium businesses have seen their revenue increase.
“That’s pretty good for the pandemic.”
66% of those respondents who have seen their revenue drop say that this is because of the pandemic.”
“Anyone growing hay has had a terrible time, because they can’t harvest.
“Tourism has been targeted to the top end of town. O’Reilly’s occupancy rates were above 90%, but those international visitors were shut out of town.”
Emma Fawcett says that the survey shows that there is much positivity amongst the small business community in Logan,
“Small businesses in Australia are a resilient bunch, and looking ahead, there is definitely some optimism coming through.
“When we asked about revenue predictions, 41% of small businesses expect their revenue to increase and a further third expect their revenue to increase over the next 12 months.”
