STOCKTON-ON-TEES: Companies in the Builders Merchants industry know better than most the importance of keeping a close eye on other firms they do business with.

Plimsoll have launched a new service that allows companies in the Builders Merchants industry to get a financial health rating on the companies they trade with.

David Pattison, senior analyst and architect of the new One Page Analysis service explains the benefit of knowing about the companies you are dealing with: “As a result of recession, one in three British companies are selling at a loss. Such has been the rate of decline at some companies; even your most reliable customer from two years ago may now be considered a big risk.”

Mr Pattison continues, “We have analysed 250 000 companies as part of this unique service and the numbers are staggering. At a basic level, if you have 10 key customers, chances are that threee of them are in financial difficulty. The same rule applies to your suppliers and competitors. Even the company that supplies the office toilet rolls could be in trouble.”

“We launched the One Page Analysis Service so that decision makers can have access to instant assessments of the companies they deal with. We provide a fast, reliable analysis that will give you key intelligence on an individual company on a single page.