- By Simon Jack
- Business editor
Image source, Getty Images
The number of companies going bust this year is on track to be the highest since the depths of the financial crisis in 2009.
There has also been a sharp rise in the number of firms at risk of going bust.
Firms in “critical financial distress” jumped 25% in the last three months, insolvency expert Begbies Traynor says.
They are defined as having county court judgments exceeding £5,000 against them – often a precursor to going under.
Dean Euden, a wine merchant from Cardiff, has already wound up his business. “I thought Covid would be the toughest time but actually the harder times came after,” he said.
Dean Euden had to shut his wine merchants as people cut back on luxuries during the cost of living crisis
“The cost of living crisis meant people had less money to spend so I closed the shop and went online but there just wasn’t the same spending power in the market,” he added.
“I couldn’t make ends meet, couldn’t pay my suppliers, couldn’t pay myself. That’s when I…
