Help on hand to stave off credit crunch

BUSINESSES in the Capital are to be offered a "corporate health check" in a bid to stave off the threat of the credit crunch.

Business law group CCW, which has offices in Edinburgh, Dunfermline and Salisbury, will use the surgeries to give confidential advice about the financial problems that companies and their owner-managers may face in fragile economic conditions.

Among the problems the sessions are looking to counter are rising overheads at a time when demand may be weakening and credit availability may be reducing.

The company said that many firms do not want to talk to auditors or lenders as they fear it may lead to them acting inappropriately.

CCW partner John Clarke, who is a non-executive director of several companies with 25 years' experience in corporate law and accreditation as a registered insolvency practitioner, is spearheading the new service. He said: "It's tough out there and it could get tougher still.

"All businesses know the potential upshot of rising costs coupled with an economic slowdown.

"What we're trying to do is offer a fixed-cost and confidential 'coaching' service."