Big businesses and North Island businesses are the slowest payers

A survey by Dun and Bradstreet of how quickly businesses pay their bills has found that big businesses pay much slower than small businesses and South Island businesses pay faster than North Island businesses. Overall, average payment times improved by 2.7 days to 45.7 days in the June quarter from the March quarter, it said. Here are the key findings below.

• New Zealand firms have improved payment terms for the second consecutive quarter, with a drop of 2.7 days since the previous quarter reducing terms to an average of 45.7 days. However despite the improvement, business-to-business payments remain significantly above the standard 30 day term.
• Big businesses are the worst payers, with firms employing 200-499 or 500+ employees the slowest to settle their accounts in the June 2009 quarter.
• Small firms (those with 6-19 and 20-40 employees) were the quickest to pay in the June 2009 quarter, averaging 44.7 and 44.6 days respectively to settle accounts.
• An improvement of 1.3 days q/q took the agriculture industry's payment terms to 41.6 days and kept the sector in its position as the quickest paying group. The electric, gas and sanitary services sector was the slowest to pay in the June quarter and the only sector to be above the 50 day mark (53.7).
• Businesses located on the south island are faster payers than their north island counterparts, with firms in the south averaging 42.4 days to settle accounts while those in the north are taking 46.3 days.
• Christchurch is the fastest paying city, with businesses based there taking 45.7 days to settle accounts following a q/q improvement of 2.8 days. Wellington and Auckland follow at 47.3 and 48.7 days.