Small and medium-sized business owners have been warned not to be complacent in the wake of another high profile insolvency hitting the UK by leading trade credit insurer Atradius.

Construction giant Connaught, valued just months ago at £500m, has this week entered administration leaving thousands of creditors out of pocket and wondering if and how they are going to be paid for goods and services they have already provided.

In a recent study by Atradius, 57% of British businesses surveyed said that they were experiencing unarranged delays to payment by companies they were supplying and 59% had been asked for extended payment terms in the past six months.

"After an economically tough couple of years, it's tempting for businesses to look at the improving insolvency statistics and presume that we are out of the woods - but the demise of Connaught is a classic cautionary tale," said Marc Henstridge, head of risk at Atradius UK.

"But this could be the tip of the iceberg - public spending cuts and other austerity measures mean businesses must continue to be meticulous in their management of trade credit risks, either in-house or by outsourcing their credit management to a trade credit insurer. There are still many potential surprises - and not all of them will be pleasant ones."