Big freeze was a big nightmare

Cold spell: Dublin shoppers stay at home during the adverse weather in the run up to Christmas

Businesses reported huge losses due to adverse weather conditions, yet an improved Government response meant fewer staff were absent than last year

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Although smaller c-stores in residential areas fared well in the bad weather, most city centre retailers saw a sharp decrease in sales. An IBEC survey of over 400 companies revealed the economic cost and the effect on business of the adverse weather conditions.

IBEC director of Policy, Brendan Butler said that was one of busiest times of the year for companies and that the adverse weather had had a very negative impact on production, sales and cash flow. “While the cost has been substantial, it would have been significantly higher were it not for the improved response from Government and local authorities,” he said.

The survey found that over half of businesses rated the response to the adverse weather conditions as good or very good at both national (56.2%) and local (51.1%) government level. This is a significant improvement on how business rated the response last January, when few businesses rated the national government (16%) and local authority (31%) response as good or very good.  

Better clearing and treatment of major roads and improved public transport resulted in less than 9% of staff being absent due to weather conditions, compared to a figure of 13% last January. However, the survey was carried out in the first half of the week so it is reasonable to assume that absentee levels and the cost to business would have increased significantly as weather conditions worsened.

On the upside, much of the business lost should be recovered over the coming weeks as business returns to normal. Most of the ‘costs’ are actually sales/production postponed rather than sales/production lost permanently. This is not the case for all businesses however, and many retailers, for example, have experienced a significant fall in sales, which will not be recovered.

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