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UK business at risk from supply chain disruption, says report

[ April 1, 2026   //   ]

Almost half of UK businesses rely on just three clients for half their revenuewhile only 33% say they have fully implemented disruption-response strategies, according to a survey of supply chain leaders by the SCALA consultancy.
It warns that many UK businesses are vulnerable because supply chains depend on too few options.
The Resilience Gap: Assessing the Risks and Readiness of Global Supply Chains, underlines that ‘single points of failure’ exist across production locations, transport routes and over-reliance on a small number of major customers for revenue. It found that manufacturing footprints remain concentrated in China, Europe and the UK, with ‘Other South East Asia’ (including Taiwan and Vietnam) acting as econdary hubs and limited footprint elsewhere.It also found that progress on cultivating supply chain resilience is uneven. Just 33% of businesses report having already implemented the strategies required to respond adequately to disruption, while 52% have commenced and partially implemented them, and 14% have yet to begin.
Scala said that a narrow geographic footprint can increase exposure to geopolitics, trade barriers, climate disruption and transport bottlenecks, while customer concentration can make the impacts of disruption commercially severe.

Chris Clowes, executive director at SCALA, said: “Many supply chains were built over time to optimise cost and service in a more stable operating environment. But in today’s conditions, heavy dependence on a small number of manufacturing regions or a handful of major customers can leave less headroom when disruption hits.”
The report sets out practical actions to reduce ‘single points of failure’ includeing end-to-end risk mapping, dual or multi-sourcing of critical components across different regions and developing secondary manufacturing or assembly options.

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