Spanish companies lose 26,000 million a year chasing customers who are defective

He Toreador del Moroso or Frac Collectorso popular in the 90s, over time they gave way to companies specializing in debt collection.

It’s a juicy deal considering that six out of ten companies The Spaniards are the victims delinquency and up to 12% risk being blindsided by this phenomenon, according to Crédito y Caución.

Trying to recover that money is not an easy task. Companies in Spain lose €26,000 million every year chasing debt buyers. According to the latest data, the bill for the entire Old Continent amounts to HRK 275,000 million European Payments Report from Intrum. Its managing director in Spain, José Luis Bellosta, points out that “effective collection monitoring is a task that, on many occasions, involves excessive spending for companies, both in terms of time and resources.”

Spanish companies that manage to collect debts do so with 74 days late, a week more than the European average. In fact, they are the fifth longest hoarders, behind only their neighbors Finland (83 days), Poland (82 days), Italy (81 days) and Germany (81 days). This delay limits the growth expectations of many companies, which prefer to delay investment due to the uncertainty of not knowing when they will have that capital.

Although almost seven in ten believe that the risks of non-payment will increase next year, late payment is not the only factor weighing on the health of Spanish companies.

Three out of ten will cut costs

The inflation remains a major challenge to maintain profit margins. Six in ten companies believe that high prices will not ease for a year or more, so in the coming months they will decide to cut costs (31%) or secure customer payments faster (24%), compared to other measures such as expanding investment in innovation and new product development in order to be more competitive (9%).

More than half admit that price pressure is causing customers to delay payment or ask for discounts. In addition, nine out of ten companies have received or expect to receive requests for wage increases, further increasing costs.