Overtrading is a term in financial statement analysis. Overtrading often occurs when companies expand their own operations too quickly (aggressively).[1] Overtraded companies enter a negative cycle, where an increase in interest expenses negatively impacts the net profit, which leads to lesser working capital, and that leads to increased borrowings, which in turn leads to interest expenses and the cycle continues. Overtraded companies eventually face liquidity problems and can run out of working capital.

Conditions

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Alternative retail definition

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In retail contexts, the term "overtrading" is sometimes used to describe a situation where a retail outlet has more customers than it can handle, to the extent to which it needs to add additional outlets or otherwise increase capacity. This meaning of "overtrading" has been used in relation to Aldi[2] and IKEA,[3] especially in the UK.

References

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  1. ^ Finance Wales: "A practical guide to cash-flow management", page 28. CIMA, 2004 https://web.archive.org/web/20101124021102/http://www.highpeak.gov.uk/business/econdev/General/Cash_flow_management_17_08_04.pdf Retrieved on 2010-11-10
  2. ^ "Proposals / Cynigion – Aldi – Mon Bank".
  3. ^ https://myplanning.warrington.gov.uk/Planning/StreamDocPage/obj.pdf?DocNo=7444642&PageNo=1&content=obj.pdf [bare URL PDF]