Architect reports falling half year revenue but says profits will return

Losses at architect Aukett Fitzroy Robinson almost tripled in the first half of the year, with construction markets remaining “very depressed” according to the firm’s chief executive.

The architect reported losses of £633,000, up from £239,000 in the same period last year, as revenue fell by a quarter from £4.1m to £3.1m.

However, chief executive Nicholas Thompson said the firm had won a number of prestige projects in recent weeks in both the UK and Russia which would deliver revenue growth and a return to profit in the second half of the year.

The first half results recorded turnover falls of 15% in the UK and 55% in its central Europe business, with Russian revenues more than doubling while the Middle East business failed to book any revenue despite having 18 projects on the books. Thompson said the UK revenues decreased as clients progressed projects more slowly than anticipated.

Thompson said: “Construction markets remain very depressed but we feel that our continuing strategy of maintaining our core expertise has been vindicated by a significant number of prestige contract wins which give us reason to be positive in the medium term”.