Listed businesses in the North West issue lowest number of Q3 profit warnings in five years

• Listed companies in the North West issued five profit warnings in the third quarter of 2026, marking the lowest Q3 total since 2021 when four were issued
• Profit warnings in the region were down both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter
• Listed North West businesses operating in the FTSE Industrials super-sector issued the region’s highest volume of warnings in Q3, with three
• Nationally, UK-listed businesses issued 65 profit warnings during Q3 – the highest quarterly total since Q4 2024 (71 warnings)

North West, 20 October 2026: UK-listed companies in the North West issued five profit warnings during the third quarter of 2026, the lowest Q3 total since 2021 (four warnings), according to EY-Parthenon’s latest Profit Warnings report.

More than half of the region’s Q3 warnings (three) came from businesses operating in the FTSE Industrials super-sector, in line with the trend seen in the previous quarter.

Although North West warnings fell year-on-year in the third quarter, from six in Q3 2025 to five in Q3 2026, listed companies in the region issued 18 warnings in the first nine months of 2026, up from 14 over the same period last year, amid ongoing geopolitical disruption and subdued economic growth.

Only London (20 profit warnings) and the South East (15) recorded more warnings than the North West in the third quarter.

Overall, UK-listed companies issued 65 profit warnings during the third quarter of 2026, up from 59 in Q2 and the highest quarterly total since Q4 2024 (71).

Rising costs were cited as a leading factor in more than a third (35%) of Q3 warnings – the highest proportion recorded for this cause since Q4 2022 (41%).

The leading driver of profit warnings in Q3, for the sixth consecutive quarter, was policy change and geopolitical uncertainty (54%), the highest quarterly proportion to reference this reason in more than 25 years of EY’s analysis. Two in five warnings (38%) during the third quarter specifically cited the impact of the conflict in the Middle East.

The report identified contract and order cancellations or delays (38%) and weaker consumer confidence (20%) as the other main drivers behind Q3 warnings.

Nearly a fifth (17%) of all UK-listed businesses have issued at least one profit warning in the last 12 months.

Sam Woodward, EY-Parthenon UK&I Financial Restructuring Partner in the North West, said: “The North West business community is demonstrating its resilience and ability to adapt to challenging conditions despite navigating an economic backdrop characterised by geopolitical disruption, subdued growth and muted consumer confidence, which has inevitably had an impact on market conditions.

“Industrial businesses across the North West continued to be most affected in the third quarter – as was the case in Q2 – due to ongoing supply chain disruption and high energy costs. Rising interest rates and inflation are now adding a further layer of complexity, so forward planning and stress testing will continue to be important in the months ahead. Supply chain resilience, a sharp focus on cash flow and transparent, realistic forecasting should also be priorities given the current landscape.”

Jo Robinson, EY-Parthenon Partner and UK&I Financial Restructuring Leader, added: “The latest figures show the variety of structural changes and challenges that companies are currently navigating. This is not a conventional economic cycle. For much of the post-war period, the economy followed a familiar demand-led boom-and-bust pattern but, since the pandemic, supply-side disruption including material and labour shortages, energy shocks, tariffs and wider geopolitical disruption has become far more significant. Companies are also facing existential questions about their business models, as consumer behaviour evolves and AI reshapes competitive positions and routes to market.

“With the Autumn Budget around the corner, profit warnings linked to policy change and uncertainty – once concentrated around fiscal events or elections – have become a regular feature of our data. Businesses have shown considerable resilience, but the pace of policy change is making forecasting, investment and capital allocation much harder. In today’s fiscal and financing environment, where many earnings pressures are linked to external shocks or competitive and technological disruption, boards that act early instead of waiting for conditions to improve will retain more options.”

Warnings from listed housebuilders surpass level of 2008 global financial crisis

The FTSE sector with the highest number of profit warnings during Q3 was Household Goods and Home Construction, which recorded eight warnings. This included six warnings from listed housebuilders, taking their total in 2026 so far to 14, well above the 10 issued in 2008 during the peak of the global financial crisis.

The Industrial Support Services – which encompasses business service providers, industrial suppliers and recruitment companies – and Construction and Materials sectors each issued six profit warnings in the third quarter.