Central Contracts’ Mike Lloyd: experiencing business upswing

Editor’s Blog on increasing business confidence in the Midlands

I SPOKE today – albeit briefly – to the ever chipper Mike Lloyd, boss of the BVRLA-approved car leasing broker firm Central Contracts.

Seems like Mike had more reason to be upbeat than usual. He’s already trebled the number of vehicles sold on contract hire compared to the first week in January last year. And the company had also had treble the number of enquiries compared to the same week in January 2010.

A good start for Mike and the Central Contracts team, then.

But it looks like Mike isn’t the only one that’s upbeat about the year ahead.

In the West Midlands, confidence appears to be riding high. It seems that more than half of businesses in the West Midlands are confident of improving their fortunes in 2011.

I like this confidence. We need more of it. As Mike Ashton, the chief exec of the Hereford and Worcester Chamber of Commerce puts it: “This shows a real fighting spirit among the region’s business community. The fact that over half feel that both sales and profitability will increase through the New Year shows their determination to tough out the downturn.”

According to the West Midland chambers it’s the service sector, which includes professional services, tourism, hotels, catering, transport, market and media and retailing and wholesaling, which is reporting improved sales and order books.

OK, Mike Ashton acknowledges, it’s coming from a low base but the signs are encouraging. They must be for businesses that have had to struggle for so long under the cloud of recession.

But, as Mike Lloyd from Central Contracts adds, “I’ve been saying it’s going to get better for the last two years