UK heatwaves are hitting manufacturers hardest – but transport firms at the slowest to act.
Rising temperatures have become one of the most common forms of severe weather disruption facing UK businesses, according to the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) Business Insights survey.
The home delivery expert Parcelhero has been analysing the latest survey, covering the period to 28 June 2026. It says the responses show that 10.3% of all UK businesses have been impacted by increased temperatures or heat in the last 12 months, up from 6.2% in the equivalent survey a year earlier.
Parcelhero’s head of consumer research, David Jinks, said: ‘The increase in the impact of heat on operations is very pronounced in manufacturing, where the proportion of businesses reporting heat related concerns has risen more than five fold year on year, from 2.2% to 12.4%. Heat is now the single most commonly reported severe weather issue for the sector, ahead of storms (8.7%) and flooding (5.8%).
‘The year on year shift is clearest when comparing the same summer period across both years. In manufacturing, the proportion of businesses reporting heat related impact has risen from 2.2% in June 2025 to 12.4% in June 2026, an increase of over ten percentage points. Similarly, the retail sector has seen a smaller, but still notable, rise: from 6.1% to 8.5%. Transportation and storage (the category that includes logistics, parcels, haulage and warehousing firms) is the exception, edging down slightly from 6.8% to 5.7%. Across all UK businesses, the figure has risen from 6.2% to 10.3%.
‘Beyond the headline increase, manufacturers are also reporting the most severe consequences. Among manufacturing businesses affected by any form of severe weather, 32.3% cited weather related damage to physical infrastructure, and around a quarter reported disruption to local (24.5%) or global (19.7%) supply chains; both notably higher than the all industry averages of 20.9% and a combined 17.3% respectively.
‘Manufacturers appear to be responding: 14.5% have formally assessed the risk that temperature increases pose to their business, and 13% have taken action to adapt; both the highest figures of the three sectors analysed by Parcelhero. Even so, cost remains a barrier, cited by 16% of manufacturers as a reason for inaction, while 29.9% say they simply don’t expect to be impacted.
‘For wholesale and retail businesses, heat is also now the most frequently cited severe weather issue, affecting 8.5% of businesses – ahead of storms (7.3%) and flooding (3.4%). Where disruption occurs, 16.6% of affected retailers report weather related damage to premises or stock, and around one in eight report supply chain disruption, whether local (12.3%) or global (11.7%).
‘Despite this, formal risk assessment for temperature increases sits at just 4% in the sector, the lowest of the three industries in this analysis, even though 34% of retailers say they are concerned about the impact of climate change on their business overall. This gap between concern and formal preparedness is one retailers may want to close as summers continue to warm.
‘Interestingly, transport and storage operators show a different pattern. Flooding, not heat, is the most commonly reported severe weather issue (7.6%), with heat and storms tied at 5.7% each. Most strikingly, only 1.4% of transport and storage businesses have taken action to adapt to temperature increases specifically, far below manufacturing (13%) and retail (6.8%) – despite 10.9% having assessed the risk as relevant to them. Cost is the leading barrier, cited by 21.8% of transport businesses, the highest of the three sectors, while just 6.4% say they haven’t been prevented from acting at all.
‘What this data shows is a widening gap between exposure and preparedness. Manufacturers are feeling the heat, quite literally, and are starting to act on it. Retailers are seeing the same weather pattern but haven’t yet caught up on formal risk planning. And transport and storage businesses, who are arguably the most physically exposed to a warming climate, are the least likely to have taken any adaptive action at all, largely because of cost.
‘One certainty is that it will be those transport and storage companies that are partnered with retailers with strong in-store and online sales that will be in a better position to triumph over unpredictable issues such as increasing temperatures and global conflicts. Parcelhero has just released ‘2030: The High Street Fights Back?’, a follow up to its widely read 2016 report ‘2030: The Death of the High Street’. The new report explores how e-commerce growth and disruptions like the pandemic have reshaped town centres over the past decade. Its central finding is that, while the High Street is unlikely to vanish by 2030, it faces a defining moment of transformation.’
The full report is available here