Dutch SMEs show rise in turnover, profit margin

Dutch small and medium-sized enterprises are generally performing better as compared to previous years, reports the accounting firms network SRA based on a survey of 3,200 businesses. Average turnover of SMEs in the Netherlands increased in 2014 by 3.9 percent. Operating profit on average increased by a quarter, mainly due to cost savings. The average profit margin (earnings before taxes as a percentage of sales) was at 5.6 percent in 2014 compared to 4.3 percent a year earlier. The largest increase in turnover and profit before taxes was demonstrated by SMEs in the construction industry. The increase in those figures is 6.1 percent and 48 percent respectively. Researchers at SRA looked at companies in 20 different sectors with a cumulative revenue of 5.4 billion euros. Two-thirds of the surveyed companies had annual sales below a million euros per year. The rest of the companies had a turnover between one and ten million.