{
  "docId": "019dd923-5ca1-7489-b637-20da6f3b3482",
  "docSlug": "74890ef14c3ae51b",
  "documentTitle": "Parthenon Profit Warnings Q4",
  "authorId": "EY",
  "authorName": "EY",
  "documentKindSlug": "consulting-deck",
  "documentKindLabel": "Consulting deck",
  "sourceTypeSlug": "strategy_consulting",
  "sourceTypeLabel": "Strategy consulting",
  "presentationDate": null,
  "orientation": "landscape",
  "aspectRatio": 1.414,
  "pageNumber": 4,
  "pageCount": 15,
  "prevPage": 3,
  "nextPage": 5,
  "slideType": "executive_summary",
  "function": "summarize",
  "density": "overcrowded",
  "nDataPoints": 1,
  "notes": "The slide features a pull-quote and a headshot of the author.",
  "elementsJson": [
    "headline_text",
    "paragraph",
    "headshot",
    "quote_block"
  ],
  "metadataConfidence": 1,
  "imagePath": null,
  "slideHref": "/slides/019dd923-5ca1-7489-b637-20da6f3b3482/4",
  "deckHref": "/decks/019dd923-5ca1-7489-b637-20da6f3b3482",
  "deckJsonHref": "/decks/019dd923-5ca1-7489-b637-20da6f3b3482.json",
  "deckAnchorHref": "/decks/019dd923-5ca1-7489-b637-20da6f3b3482#slide-4",
  "components": [
    {
      "bbox": null,
      "kind": "callout",
      "text": "What began as post-pandemic disruption has evolved into a cycle of persistent volatility ...",
      "attrs": null,
      "subkind": null,
      "toolName": "Visual emphasis",
      "toolSlug": "visual-emphasis",
      "confidence": null,
      "componentId": "019dd951-c23e-726c-a77c-70f36337bf57",
      "frameworkName": null,
      "frameworkSlug": null
    },
    {
      "bbox": {
        "h": 0.16,
        "w": 0.138,
        "x": 0.033,
        "y": 0.045
      },
      "kind": "image",
      "text": "Jo Robinson",
      "attrs": null,
      "subkind": "headshot",
      "toolName": null,
      "toolSlug": null,
      "confidence": null,
      "componentId": "21f12098-73fa-4b59-a75c-da8d4dca230b",
      "frameworkName": null,
      "frameworkSlug": null
    },
    {
      "bbox": {
        "h": 0.06,
        "w": 0.138,
        "x": 0.033,
        "y": 0.215
      },
      "kind": "paragraph",
      "text": "Jo Robinson, EY-Parthenon, Head of UK & Ireland Turnaround and Restructuring Strategy",
      "attrs": null,
      "subkind": "paragraph",
      "toolName": null,
      "toolSlug": null,
      "confidence": null,
      "componentId": "322fb2ca-f584-4d25-b237-9655a0e60494",
      "frameworkName": null,
      "frameworkSlug": null
    },
    {
      "bbox": {
        "h": 0.45,
        "w": 0.35,
        "x": 0.193,
        "y": 0.115
      },
      "kind": "paragraph",
      "text": "The pace of UK profit warnings slowed in 2025, but this feels more like an uneasy pause than a turning point. Many companies continue to face a difficult and uncertain backdrop, and restructuring activity looks set to build as these issues come to a head. In the last four years, we have recorded the most sustained period of profit warning stress in over 25 years of our analysis. What began as post-pandemic disruption has evolved into a cycle of persistent volatility, with businesses navigating a relentless series of challenges and issuing profit warnings at recession-like levels. Throughout most of 2025, this trend continued, with a record number of downgrades triggered by a new wave of geopolitical uncertainty and policy turbulence, compounding the impact of ongoing economic and market stresses. At the end of 2025, this relentless pace of downgrades finally eased. UK-based listed companies issued 55 profit warnings in the final quarter – the lowest in over a decade. This often happens at the end of a cycle when forecasts have adjusted to new realities – or if conditions improve – but it feels too soon to call a turning point. As the start of 2026 has proven, risks persist and challenges continue to evolve.",
      "attrs": null,
      "subkind": "paragraph",
      "toolName": null,
      "toolSlug": null,
      "confidence": null,
      "componentId": "9df79601-3e4b-4451-8096-dcb0aef6acec",
      "frameworkName": null,
      "frameworkSlug": null
    },
    {
      "bbox": {
        "h": 0.45,
        "w": 0.35,
        "x": 0.565,
        "y": 0.115
      },
      "kind": "paragraph",
      "text": "Moreover, businesses are also still contending with many of the factors that triggered this cycle, with impacts clear across a wide array of sectors. Over the past year, we've see the focus shift from planning for a return to previous norms, toward recalibrating for a world of lower growth, higher costs, greater volatility, and rapid technological disruption. But adapting to these new realities is challenging. There is no playbook. This stage of the cycle is often when pressures crystallise for companies that have held on through persistent headwinds, but lack the resources or momentum to fully recover. So far in this cycle, strong liquidity and low interest rates have given companies breathing space, supported by stakeholders' willingness to pursue consensual solutions. But we also expect greater use of insolvency processes if current conditions continue and the options for companies and their stakeholders diminish. Much now hinges on what comes next: a bullish scenario where stability and falling interest rates lift confidence, or a bearish one marked by low growth and heightened geopolitical volatility. With so much uncertainty going into 2026 and these narratives so finely balanced, the most important question probably isn't \"What's next?\" but \"How ready are we?\".",
      "attrs": null,
      "subkind": "paragraph",
      "toolName": null,
      "toolSlug": null,
      "confidence": null,
      "componentId": "c99e0fb2-df86-4cec-a398-070b1d4e7fcd",
      "frameworkName": null,
      "frameworkSlug": null
    },
    {
      "bbox": {
        "h": 0.1,
        "w": 0.73,
        "x": 0.183,
        "y": 0.67
      },
      "kind": "quote",
      "text": "What began as post-pandemic disruption has evolved into a cycle of persistent volatility ...",
      "attrs": null,
      "subkind": "pull-quote",
      "toolName": null,
      "toolSlug": null,
      "confidence": null,
      "componentId": "9e87dd55-f080-460d-a1da-6653ba32c903",
      "frameworkName": null,
      "frameworkSlug": null
    },
    {
      "bbox": {
        "h": 0.04,
        "w": 0.255,
        "x": 0.193,
        "y": 0.045
      },
      "kind": "title",
      "text": "An uneasy pause",
      "attrs": null,
      "subkind": "headline",
      "toolName": null,
      "toolSlug": null,
      "confidence": null,
      "componentId": "051951b1-d892-42e0-a208-b3399788bbdb",
      "frameworkName": null,
      "frameworkSlug": null
    }
  ],
  "metrics": [],
  "tools": [
    {
      "name": "Scenario planning",
      "slug": "scenario-planning",
      "agent": null,
      "layer": "block",
      "matchId": "02317bcf-e58b-4323-9b77-31f6c23b4453",
      "evidence": "keyword-coverage: scenario, uncertainty",
      "confidence": 0.2
    },
    {
      "name": "Executive summary",
      "slug": "executive-summary",
      "agent": null,
      "layer": "slide",
      "matchId": "bb75be12-9c90-42aa-aa55-66fc87dd9123",
      "evidence": "type: executive_summary",
      "confidence": 0.9
    }
  ],
  "frameworks": [],
  "arcBeats": [
    {
      "to": 4,
      "from": 3,
      "beatId": "3fa219d3-8c61-44e7-952b-a5fbfe26f0cb",
      "arcName": "Monroe's Motivated Sequence",
      "arcSlug": "monroes-sequence",
      "beatName": "Attention",
      "beatSlug": "monroes-sequence-attention",
      "evidence": "The executive summary and KPI dashboard grab the audience's attention",
      "position": 0,
      "confidence": 0.8,
      "parentBeatName": "Hook",
      "parentBeatSlug": "hook"
    }
  ],
  "loops": [],
  "imagePathAlt": null,
  "thumbSrc": null,
  "thumbSrcAlt": null,
  "locked": true
}