Duarte Goncalves, managing director, DXG
It is hard to gauge. We have had to compete with some silly prices for the last year and certainly a lot of those companies have disappeared. Things look like they are improving, but is that because things are getting better or because there is less competition and less silly pricing? Another thing to look out for is seasonality; this time of year is traditionally one of the busiest, so it is no surprise people are seeing an increase in work. What will happen come December, January and February? That is when you will see what state we are in. But, overall, I think things are looking up. I certainly think we have bottomed out, but we all need to keep working hard.

Tim Hill, managing director, Speedscreen
I do, actually. We’ve seen a steady increase in the amount of point-of-sale (POS) work we’re doing, which is mainly for trade clients. Much of what we do also goes into retail outlets, which hopefully means that consumer confidence is on the up and customers are increasing their spend on POS. It is difficult to be precise, though, as these tend to be our busiest months anyway being in the run-up to Christmas, so it’s very hectic here. That said, everybody fears the ‘double-dip’ recession, but being in POS, we’re often the first to be hit by a recession, but also the first to see indications of a recovery.

Ken Harrison, managing director, F1 Colour
Well I’m pleased to say that we never experienced a downturn, so it’s hard to say that things are improving when they never really deteriorated. Our turnover was up 23% year-on-year in our most recent accounts (for the year ending April 2009) and we’ve continued to grow since then. If you look at the short term, we are expanding and have just had our best month for 10 years. The rates that we can charge are still falling, however, but that was happening during the ‘boom’ times as well, so I’m not sure we can blame the recession for that.

John Gilmore, managing director, Autobond
Absolutely. I sometimes wonder where this recession is. I wish we were always in a recession if this is what it’s like. We are selling machines, but our film’s sales are going through the roof, our store is constantly empty, we can’t keep enough film in it. One customer has had a terrific two months, he usually orders a tonne of film every month – he has just ordered five tonnes. Just before Christmas, we were down to one month waiting time for machines, but it has all picked up since then. I definitely think things are looking up and most of my customers are saying the same. Having said that, you never know what is around the corner.