Thanks Jack and JQ for the input so far.
I realise that it may be an expensive solution, but it would be a considered option that I would have to compare to hiring another employee/s to ring, send letters, initiate district court summonses etc. We may ultimately have an element of bad debt in there, which to date I have no reason to expect it to be greater than the current provision.
In response to JQ2002, we have started using the legal route for the older debts but find that it is a complete waste of time as the recovery rate is so low. I think that these days people pay little heed to a legal warning.
Jack, you ask what I propose to do with future debtors - I have already implemented stricter credit control and policies that we are trying to implement asap. This is to prevent a glut more of accounts that leads us to the situation that we are in at the moment. For example, we have almost 10k accounts (not necessarily customers!) on the books with values below €5k. Any new business below €3k will operate on a cash in advance basis, and any one off customers will be required to pay €2.5k deposit etc etc. We have a rang of measure in place. While we may lose some customers to competition I don't worry as we are confidant it wont be significant.
One other option that I would consider but have to do more homework first is to offer discounts to customers to pay up the account. There is a fine line there though before the sale would become loss making as the margins are so tight.
Hmmm, what to do, what to do!