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Trading companies were asked how their turnover in January 2026 compared with December 2025, leaving out any seasonal trading. Information are outlined in the middle of the period of each wave. Almost a 3rd (31%) of trading organizations reported that their turnover had reduced in January 2026 compared to the previous month.

The movements are broadly in line with those observed around this time in previous years, with peaks in December followed by small falls in January. The industries with the greatest proportion reporting that turnover decreased in January 2026 were: the accommodation and food service activities market (52%, which is a 21 portion point rise from December 2025) the other services industry (45%) the arts, entertainment and leisure market (40%) Around 16% of trading companies reported that their turnover increased in January 2026, which was a 3 portion point boost compared with December 2025.

For trading companies with 10 or more staff members, 33% reported that their turnover had reduced, which was broadly stable compared to December and January 2025. More than one in 5 (23%) organizations reported that their turnover had actually increased, up 2 percentage points compared with December 2025. Normally, the percentage of businesses reporting that their turnover increased correlated to the size of the service.

The exception to this was the percentage for businesses with 250 or more staff members, which was 25%, and 5 percentage points lower than December 2025 (30%). Trading services were asked how they expect their turnover to alter in the coming month. This can then be used to anticipate how business's turnover will really alter when that calendar month concludes.

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Patterns in between anticipated turnover and actual turnover have actually broadly moved in the same instructions, the motions for expectations tend to be bigger. Care must be taken when translating expectations concerns, as the workers responding on behalf of companies might not have complete oversight of all of their company's future expectations.

ANSR July UK PRs

More than one in 5 (21%) trading services anticipate their turnover to increase in March 2026. This is a 6 percentage point rise from February 2026 but was broadly stable compared with expectations for March 2025 (22%). The proportion of trading businesses expecting a boost in January 2026 was 13%, while the percentage that reported an actual boost in turnover in January 2026 was 16%, recommending a small pessimism in businesses expectations.

The patterns have actually broadly followed each other since the questions were introduced in April 2022. The results for March 2026 follow the pattern from previous years, with the portion of services anticipating turnover to increase peaking after a reduction in January. Larger companies were most likely to anticipate an increase in turnover in March, with the percentage ranging from 20% for companies with 0 to 9 staff members, to 42% for services with 100 to 249 staff members.

For presentational functions, some action choices have been eliminated. Data are plotted in the middle of the duration of each wave. Care ought to be taken when interpreting expectations questions, as the staff members responding on behalf of organizations may not have full oversight of all of their service's future expectations. "." represents information not yet offered.

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The proportion of trading companies that anticipated a decline in January 2026 was 25%, while the proportion that reported a real decline in turnover in January 2026 was 31%. The proportion of businesses expecting turnover to decrease for a specific month ahead of time has remained significantly lower than the proportion of services reporting an actual decline in that month since April 2022.

However, expectations for turnover to decrease have consistently followed the exact same pattern, as real reported turnover decreases throughout this time. Trading services were asked what obstacles, if any, were affecting their turnover in early February 2026. Around 3 in 10 (30%) trading organizations reported that economic unpredictability was having an influence on their turnover, which was broadly steady with early January 2026.

This is broadly stable compared with early January 2026 and 2 percentage points down compared with a year ago. For trading services with 10 or more workers, expense of labour was the most regularly reported obstacle, at 36%. This was broadly steady compared with early January 2026. Companies with 10 to 49 workers were most likely to report cost of labour as a difficulty than companies with 250 or more staff members (37%, compared with 20%). One in 5 (20%) trading services with 10 or more employees showed that they were not presently experiencing any turnover obstacles in early February 2026. More details on financial performance, consisting of all action options categorised by industry and size band, are offered in our accompanying dataset.