The “Business and Ukraine” study commissioned by the National Debt Register (KRD) shows that due to the war in Ukraine, the problem of Polish firms is reducing the value of orders placed, resignation from planned projects or orders and delaying payments for products or services.

According to the survey, 38% of owners of companies from the SME sector believe that the Russian-Ukrainian war has or will have a negative impact on their activities. This prompts them to make decisions aimed at better protection of their own interests – withholding or delaying payments for products or services, requests for longer payment terms on invoices, resignation and postponement of planned projects or orders, and reducing the value of orders.

44% of surveyed entrepreneurs complain about the reduction in the value of orders. The most frequent complaints are submitted by companies from the trade sector (57.4% of responses) and construction (56.13%). It is also a problem for 47% of medium-sized companies (employing 50-249 people) located in the northern region (Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Pomorskie, Warmińsko-Mazurskie Regions) – 78.7%.

Dariusz Szkaradek, the president of the NFG factoring company cooperating with KRD, is pointing out that companies only decide to make necessary purchases, accumulating funds and waiting for better conditions for investment, which is a serious problem for suppliers who have sold larger quantities of goods so far, and now as a result of contractors’ decisions, they have to store them or look for new sales opportunities. For the company, lower sales mean cash frozen in unsold goods.

According to the KRD survey, nearly 30% of entrepreneurs from the SME sector encountered the postponement of planned projects or orders by contractors, and 35% of them had to resign from them completely. This problem mostly concerns companies from the trade sector located in the south-western part of the country (Dolnośląskie and Opolskie voivodeships). Entrepreneurs more often complain about the complete abandonment of previously planned projects than about their postponement.

Another problem is delays in payments (33%) or complete withholding of payments by contractors (30%) which applies mainly to construction and transport companies. According to experts, such behaviour means that the activity is credited at the expense of other entities on the market.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński order