Data · Companies House
Cash position of UK manufacturing companies in 2026
Draft, not published
Median cash at the balance sheet date in UK manufacturing companies is £31,154. The UK-wide median is £12,327. Based on 146 companies in this sector with the figure tagged, from Companies House filings in June and July 2026.
Every figure we can publish for this sector
Each row shows what this sector reported, the same measure across the whole sample, and how many companies in the sector carried that figure. The counts differ by row because companies tag different fields, and the median ratio row uses its own smaller count: it needs both figures tagged and creditors above zero.
| Measure | Manufacturing | UK-wide | Companies in this figure |
|---|---|---|---|
| In net current liabilities (net current assets below zero) | 37.9% | 37.3% | 256 |
| Holding less cash than the creditors due within one year | 71.7% | 63.8% | 92 |
| Median cash as a share of creditors due within one year | 46% | 48% | 91 |
| With £1,000 or less in the bank at the balance sheet date | 14.4% | 20.6% | 146 |
| Median cash at the balance sheet date | £31,154 | £12,327 | 146 |
Reading these numbers
Manufacturing holds the highest median cash in the set, £31,154 against a UK median of £12,327, and the smallest share of companies with £1,000 or less in the bank, 14.4% against 20.6%. The near-term rows read less comfortably. 71.7% held less cash than the creditors due within a year, above the UK rate of 63.8%, the median company's cash covers 46% of those creditors against 48%, and 37.9% are in net current liabilities against 37.3%. So the largest middle balance in the set sits alongside median cover below the sample's. Negative net cash is not published for this sector. A bank balance on its own settles nothing, here or anywhere else on this site.
Where these numbers come from. The Companies House monthly accounts bulk product, which is free and public, for accounts filed in June and July 2026. Dataset 2026-08: 10,000 filings randomly sampled (seed-reproducible), 6,863 with usable iXBRL facts; SIC joined from BasicCompanyDataAsOneFile-2026-08-01. Balance sheet facts were read from the filings themselves; each figure carries its own count of companies, because companies do not all tag the same fields.
Small companies file balance-sheet-only accounts with no profit and loss, so nothing on this page describes cover over time. Every claim here is cash against what is owed. Full method, definitions and caveats. This sector page draws on 273 sampled companies.
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