It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.
It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years.
Here we speak to Matthew Hodgson, director at Great Newsome Brewery.
On the back of volatility, rising inflation, energy costs and supply issues you can’t help but feel pretty glum about the coming year.
I believe that inflationary pressures will not increase in 2023 at the rate they did in late 2022. I do think increased volatility is here to stay, however. Food security and supply, for example, has not been taken seriously by successive governments for many decades. Climate change, increasing population, war and our reliance on a small number of food types mean we have a global reliance on critical harvests in the likes of Brazil, Australia and, of course, Ukraine.
But by far the biggest danger I foresee in 2023 is ‘confidence’. A lack of confidence by businesses to invest for growth, by consumers to spend and by those who govern us to lead, could be the greatest threat to the country getting itself back on an even keel.
One thing is for certain, 2023 will be challenging. The flexibility, adaptability and tenacity of many small and medium size businesses has seen them survive, and even flourish, over the last couple of years – I think that, no matter how exhausting the process was, we will find ourselves continually pivoting and changing again in 2023.
Having started our business in the recession of 2007/08 I was told by a number of people not to worry as “people console themselves with either chocolate or beer during difficult times,” so I am hoping, once again, for the latter.
