How will the Government spending review affect the Workwear and Corporate Clothing market?

This week saw the long awaited announcement of the coalition government spending review. Whilst the detail of George Osbourne's speech have yet to be disected it is clear that the full extent of the cuts to public sector spending will not be felt in full for some time with many experts predicting that as a country we will still be feeling the effects of this weeks review budget in several years time.
The two departments guaranteed to be spared from a cull that covered every area of public sector spending were education and the NHS. These two departments produce between them significant spending within both the workwear and corporate clothing markets. This will be some comfort to many companies within our industry. JKL Clothing, for example, have calculated that approximately 15% of annual turnover can be attributed to education, both school and higher education and the NHS. Whilst not a huge percentage it is certainly a significant amount. I am sure that many companies will now be looking at both these sectors with a view to targeting them far more aggressively when marketing budgets are set and new business goals are specified. JKL Clothing have been active in both these areas for some time, most notably supplying workwear to the NHS in the form of medical coats and smocks and also doing significant business to many UK universities providing a variety of promotional merchandise.
Many companies within our sector are heavily reliant on public sector spending with businesses built up on providing workwear and corporate clothing to council and local authorities. As these organisations look to cut costs and save money, one area that will surely attract in depth scrutiny will be workforce clothing and uniform. Exactly how that will affect JKL Clothing and companies operating within our market remains to be seen. Two perspectives will remain and that is product and service, JKL Clothing believe that by concentrating on getting these two areas right, it will provide the firm basis from which to survive what many people think will be tough spending cuts leading to difficult trading conditions for many small and medium size businesses. Time will surely tell, but one thing almost certain, we are in for interesting times ahead.