Income slips 7% but architect says impact of lockdown was ‘minimal’
Make Architects saw turnover slip 7% last year but the practice behind the One Leadenhall building being built by Multiplex played down the impact of the pandemic on its numbers.
The firm said income fell to £17.9m last year, although pre-tax profit increased fourfold to £467,000.
A report accompanying the accounts signed off by Make director Jason Parker, said the practice had “fared well” during 2020 and added the impact of covid-19 had been “minimal”.
“Although revenue was lower than 2019, several new projects were won during and after lockdown in the UK and existing projects continued as normal,” it said.
But Parker added that revenue for the first six months of 2021 had been “slightly lower” than that in the 2020 reporting period.
“At the start of the year there were a few redundancies in Australia and a couple of staff on furlough but we now expect revenue for 2021 to be close to 2020,” he said.
The accounts revealed Make received £274,000 in furlough money from the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme last year.
On a region-by-region basis, Make’s UK turnover increased 5% compared with 2019. It said the rise was due to commercial sector projects won before and during lockdown.
Asia revenue was up 1.6% to £1.8m but Australia income plummeted by almost 70% to £971,000 and turnover in Europe was down by nearly 90% to £24,000.
Make said the slump in Australian revenue was due to projects being put on hold because of covid-19’s impact on the retail sector.
No comments yet