Here at eNL there was a collective sigh of relief when forecasters stopped predicting more snow and the white stuff finally melted away, leaving our pavements and roads serviceable once again. It wasn’t just the difficulty, in some cases the impossibility, of getting from A to B that meant we were glad to see the back of it. The prolonged period of heavy snow was quite simply bad for businesses up and down the UK. According to research from Lloyds TSBthe snow led to slower growth in private firms, with six out of nine English regions reporting weaker rises in business activity than expected. Even the mighty Tesco reported a £50m sales slump and endured its worst seasonal trading since the early 90s. Given the severity of the last two winters, is this slow down in trade something businesses will just have to get used to? Will employers need to be better prepared for large numbers of staff who can’t make it into work for prolonged periods of time? For many employers putting a system in place to allow home working is a sensible option but for retailers and other businesses that depend on a mobile workforce or passing trade, snow poses a real threat to growth.
