Skip to main contentEOS survey reveals that one in five European companies fears for its survival - EOS Group
Hamburg, October 6, 2022
Almost one in four companies expects payment practices to deteriorate
In Western Europe, every fifth invoice is paid late, in Eastern Europe as many as one in four.
Payment practices in Europe have deteriorated in the last three years: At around one in five companies, this development is leading to fears about viability. These were some of the findings from the meanwhile 13th representative EOS Survey “European Payment Practices”, which polled 3,200 companies in 16 European countries.
Although companies had been offering extended payment terms, private customers in particular were paying their bills 19 days late on average. Compared with the previous survey from 2019, where 16 percent of invoices were paid late or not paid at all by private customers, this figure had risen to 20 percent in the current survey. The companies polled cited short-term cash flow problems on the part of their customers as the main reason for these poor payment practices.
The main consequences of these payment delays and backlogs were that companies had to deal with their own liquidity issues (42 percent) and profit shortfalls (51 percent). To compensate, around a third of companies had to reduce their investments and raise prices. Accordingly, companies have a bleak view of the future. Whereas in 2019, 22 percent of survey respondents still assumed that payment practices would improve, 24 percent of the current respondents believe that they are going to get even worse. Especially in Denmark, Switzerland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Bulgaria, the forecasts were particularly subdued. “It is concerning that payment practices have deteriorated significantly, especially because in the light of the current economic figures and high inflation we have to expect a further decline in payment behaviour,” says Marwin Ramcke, CEO of the EOS Group.
Professionalization in receivables management
More and more companies are working with external receivables management service providers to recover debts. “Lack of liquidity is one of the most common causes of insolvency and the loss of jobs.” European companies should therefore continue to professionalize their receivables management and look into working with external partners, Ramcke recommends.
Eastern Europe is a particular front runner when it comes to professionalizing receivables management. Around half of the companies in the region are already relying on the support of external specialists. “Especially in view of the challenging economic figures, debt collection providers offer valuable support to companies and the economic system, because they restore liquidity,” says Christina Schulz, who heads Division Management Eastern Europe at EOS.
Increase in digital payment methods
At the same time, expanding the digital payment methods they offer is becoming increasingly relevant for companies. Since 2019, there has been a significant raise in the availability of such options in Eastern and Western Europe, with companies in Eastern Europe almost doubling their digital payment offerings with an increase of 20 percentage points. The payment method “Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL) is also gaining ground: four out of ten European companies regard this payment method as the new credit card and a must in the range of payment options offered.
About the EOS Survey “European Payment Practices”
In partnership with independent market research institute Kantar, EOS conducted phone interviews with 3,200 companies in 16 European countries between March 4 and April 19, 2022, to ask them about the prevailing payment practices in their respective locations. 200 companies (each with an annual turnover of more than EUR 5 million) in each of the countries Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK answered questions about their own payment experiences and current issues relating to risk and receivables management. This is the 13th time that EOS has conducted the survey.
We use cookies on our website to enable you to have the best possible website visit. These include cookies that are necessary for the operation of the website, those that are only used for anonymous statistical purposes, cookies that are used for comfort settings and cookies that are used to provide you with personalized, interest-based content. You can decide yourself whether you want to allow the use of statistics, comfort, and marketing cookies. In addition, you can change/withdraw your consent at any time by clicking on the Change Cookies settings on the bottom of the website. Further information can be found in our Privacy Policy and in our Imprint.
Necessary
We use necessary cookies. These cookies are necessary for the operation and the basic functions of the website. In particular, they enable the security-relevant functioning of our website.
You can read about which cookies we use here.
Tool name
Cookieconsent_status
Tool provider
EOS Holding GmbH
Address of tool provider
Steindamm 71, 20099 Hamburg, Germany
Tool description
Essential cookie to save consent banner inputs.
Data processed
None
Purpose of data processing
To save consent
Retention period
60 days
Tool name
Java Session Cookie
Tool provider
EOS Holding GmbH
Address of tool provider
Steindamm 71, 20099 Hamburg
Tool description
Randomly generated session number essential for the proper functioning of the application software.
Data processed
None
Purpose of data processing
Proper functioning of website
Retention period
Session cookie – is deleted after you have closed your browser.
Comfort
If you allow comfort cookies, we can make use of our site easier for you. If you visit our website again to use our services, it will automatically be recognized that you already visited us and the entries and settings you made will automatically be recognized so that you do not have to enter them again.
You can read about which cookies we use here.
Tool name
Visitor
Tool provider
EOS Holding GmbH
Address of tool provider
Steindamm 71, 20099 Hamburg, Germany
Tool description
We use this cookie to make it easier for you to use this website.
Data processed
None
Purpose of data processing
Optimization, improvement of service
Retention period
Session cookie – is deleted after you have closed your browser.
Tool name
NEW_Visitor
Tool provider
EOS Holding GmbH
Address of tool provider
Steindamm 71, 20099 Hamburg, Germany
Tool description
We use this cookie to make it easier for you to use this website.
Data processed
None
Purpose of data processing
Optimization, improvement of service
Retention period
1 day
Statistics
We use statistical cookies to improve our offering and ensure a needs-based design and the continuous optimization of our website.
For this, we collect anonymized data for statistics and analytics, for example, to determine site traffic and user behavior and to adapt and improve our content and the website experience.
You can read about which cookies we use here.
Tool name
nmstat
Tool provider
Siteimprove GmbH
Address of tool provider
Rosenheimer Str. 143 C, 81671 Munich, Germany
Tool description
This cookie contains an ID character string for the current session. It contains non-personally identifiable information about which sub-pages the visitor enters – this information is used to optimize the user experience.
Data processed
None
Purpose of data processing
Analysis, statistics
Retention period
399 days
Tool name
AWSELB
Tool provider
Siteimprove GmbH
Address of tool provider
Rosenheimer Str. 143 C, 81671 Munich, Germany
Tool description
This cookie ensures that all statistics from the same session are captured contiguously.
Data processed
None
Purpose of data processing
Analysis, statistics
Retention period
Session end
Tool name
siteimproveses
Tool provider
Siteimprove GmbH
Address of tool provider
Rosenheimer Str. 143 C, 81671 Munich, Germany
Tool description
This cookie is used to track the sequence of pages viewed by the visitor during the website visit.
Data processed
None
Purpose of data processing
Analysis, website statistics
Retention period
Session cookie – is deleted after you have closed your browser.
Marketing
We use marketing cookies so that we can provide you with relevant and interest-based content when you visit our website.
You can read about which cookies we use here.
Tool name
Facebook Pixel
Tool provider
Meta Platforms Ireland Limited
Address of tool provider
4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin, D02, Ireland.
Tool description
Used by Meta to serve ads, measure and improve ad relevance, and offer advertising products on Meta.
Data processed
Ads Viewed | Pages Visited | Browser Information | Facebook Cookie Information | Facebook User ID | Geographic Location | Device Information | HTTP Header | Interactions with Ads, Services and Products | IP Address | Marketing Information | Usage Data & Behavior | Pixel ID | Referrer URL | User Agent
Purpose of data processing
Analysis | Conversion Tracking | Marketing | Social Media | Advertising
Retention period
__fbp (duration: 3 months)
Tool name
LinkedIn
Tool provider
LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company
Address of tool provider
LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company Wilton Place, Dublin 2, Ireland
Tool description
This cookie is used to obtain anonymized reports about the website target audience and the possibility of targeted advertising, e.g., in the context of retargeting.
Data processed
Device information, browser information, IP address, referrer URL and time stamp.