With tax increases barely a month away, forward-looking companies are installing mezzanines to save costs and improve productivity.
From this April, businesses will see two key changes: employers’ National Insurance is rising from 13.8% to 15%, while the threshold on employee earnings at which NI applies will drop from £9,100 to £5,000. Chancellor Rachel Reeves is also increasing the minimum wage for most adults by 6.7%.
Retail and leisure are two sectors raising concerns about the impact this will have, while the UK Warehouse Association has also reported on changes coming next year to inheritance tax that will penalise family-owned warehouse businesses.
With added pressure on companies from escalating energy prices, it is no surprise that smart-thinking enterprises are choosing mezzanines as a way to drive efficiency and save money.
Installing a mezzanine allows expanding businesses to make maximum use of their existing vertical space, avoid the costs and inconvenience of moving to new premises, bring in robotics to improve productivity, increase storage to avert supply-chain disruption and add extra manufacturing and office capacity.
Pressure on retailers and leisure
Retailers have already warned Ms Reeves that April’s tax changes will increase prices and job losses. An open letter coordinated by the British Retail Consortium trade body and signed by more than 80 retail giants, including Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Next, Asda, Kingfisher, Amazon UK, Greggs and Boots, said they are facing a rise of £7 billion in annual costs from this year when higher business rates and the impact of new packaging levies are also taken into account.
The UK retail industry, which has three million direct jobs and 2.7 million more in its supply chain, claims the tax rises will increase inflation, slow pay growth, cause shop closures and reduce jobs, particularly at entry level.
The leisure and hospitality sector, where many young people find their first job, is also in line for higher costs because an uplift in the minimum wage obviously has a greater impact on companies with more staff lower down the pay scale.
Furthermore, business electricity prices increased this month, the first time since 2023 that the average unit rate was higher than the same month a year earlier.
One bright spot is a freeze on fuel duty that is good news for supply-chain transport.
Pressure on family-owned warehouses
Inheritance tax reforms due to take effect in April 2026 represent a “seismic shift” for family-owned trading warehouses, according to the UK Warehouse Association (UKWA).
The changes mean an effective inheritance tax rate of 20% on business assets or shares that were previously exempt, with families potentially needing to restructure operations to meet their tax liability, UKWA said.
And according to Family Business United, when a cut to Business Property Relief is implemented in full next year nearly 5000 businesses will have to make adjustments to their business plans, seeking savings and reducing jobs. With 85% of businesses in the UK being family owned and contributing £575 billion to the economy, the repercussions could be widespread.
The Government has defended its tax rises as necessary to avoid cuts to public services. The rise in the minimum wage, with a bigger boost for younger workers and apprentices, has been welcomed by trade unions.
Cost-effective mezzanines for multiple uses
When overheads are increasing, mezzanines are a game-changing solution.
At Hi-Level Mezzanines we work with retailers from Tesco and Marks & Spencer to Next and Amazon, installing cost-effective mezzanines for multiple uses from hanging racks to automation. With one or more mezzanine floors retailers can repurpose and expand their usable warehouse space, and maximise their return on bricks-and-mortar stores.
Brands moving to retail parks find that the ability to install a mezzanine is a valuable benefit – although one that many “overlook”, according to British Land. Our expert structural engineers can advise on every aspect.
Our work for leisure clients ranges from generating additional space such as a café on a viewing platform for trampoline parks and climbing venues to inventing a gym-ready floor tile called Hi-Tile. Conceived for use with robots, it is increasingly popular in gyms. Mezzanines are also the answer to intense pressure for warehouse space.
Demand for mezzanines continues to grow.
Growing demand for mezzanines
Around 14.5 million ft2 of logistics space was under construction at the end of 2024 and is expected to complete in 2025.
Our award-winning quote software IQD (Intelligent Quote Designsuite) evaluates multiple mezzanine design options for our clients, selects the best choice, simulates a design and calculates a quotation – all within a matter of minutes.
Contact us today to find out how a mezzanine could help your business.
