McNicholas Construction Services Limited reported an average of 102 days to pay its suppliers in the six months to 30 June 2025, with 47% of its invoices paid more than 60 days after it received them.
The next slowest were Fanatics (International) Limited at 91 days, PZ Cussons (UK) Limited at 89 days (the six months to 31 May 2026), Kellogg Company of Great Britain, Limited at 78 days (the six months to 4 July 2026) and DWF LLP at 74 days (the three months to 31 July 2026). Those reports cover the six months to 30 June 2026 unless shown.
Across the 126 companies, the median company paid 56% of its invoices within 30 days, against 64% for all UK reporters. In all, 16 of the Manchester companies said half or more of their invoices were not paid within the terms agreed with the supplier; the median share paid late was 14.5%, against 15% nationally.
The largest shares of invoices paid outside agreed terms were reported by Lanxess Solutions UK Ltd (91%), Kingsland Drinks Limited (89%) and Fanatics (International) Limited (84%).
The fastest payers were Proman Supply Chain Ltd, at 4 days; Oliver James Associates Limited, at 9 days; Morson Human Resources Limited, at 11 days.
Of the 112 companies that also reported for a period ending about a year earlier, 43 were paying faster on average and 54 slower.
Construction and retentions
Of the Manchester companies, 21 reported construction contracts in their latest period, and 14 said those contracts include retention clauses, which let the paying party hold back part of each payment until the work is finished or its defects period ends. The typical standard retention rate was 3%. Companies reporting retention clauses include Russells Limited (5%), Citra Living Properties (No. 1) Limited (4%) and J.W.Lees & Co. (Brewers) Limited (3%). The construction and retention questions were added to the reports filed from July 2025, so they appear only in the most recent filings.
How the figures were worked out
Large companies and limited liability partnerships must publish their payment figures every six months under the Reporting on Payment Practices and Performance Regulations 2017. The figures here are what each company filed on the government’s Check payment practices service, published as open data under the Open Government Licence v3.0, as downloaded on 3 November 2026. Each company’s latest report is used, counting only reports for periods that ended on or after 4 May 2025. Companies are placed in Manchester by the registered office address held by Companies House (data as at 1 September 2026), using the M postcode area, which also covers Salford and parts of Trafford and Tameside. A registered office is where a company is registered, not necessarily where it trades or employs people. The median is the middle company when all are ranked. Reports with figures that cannot be right, such as an average above 365 days or a share above 100%, are left out. Figures for groups are as filed by each subsidiary.
Every company’s full payment record, report by report: Fair Payment.
Chart: Manchester Business Daily, from Check payment practices open data.
Fair Payment is published by Domain Farm Limited, which also publishes Manchester Business Daily.