Barratt's chief executive Mark Clare has made it clear to his local business managers that they must work harder to help companies in their supply chain to survive. "I am concerned for them," said Clare. "We've seen good companies go out of business as a result of lost volumes. The more loss to our supply chain, the harder it will be for us in the future. "I've made it clear that we must work harder. We now have a good dialogue with our supply chain and issues are mostly resolved locally. It has paid off. If you have good relations in a bad period, you are in a better stead for the good times later on." Early in the downturn, Barratt met with a barrage of bad publicity as it reneged on the existing terms of payments to its subcontractors. Clare said that stemmed from the group's then policy of allowing local businesses to manage local supply arrangements. "For the past six to 12 months, we have put the focus on the centre and we have got stronger," he reported. Clare's insight came as Barratt produced a trading update covering its latest interim period - the six months to 31 December 2008.
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