London work helps Chipperfield double profits

Profits at David Chipperfield Architects went up for the second year in a row as the firm said booming workloads in London helped the business post more than £9.5 million of revenue.

The firm, which at the end of last year was given planning for its scheme to turn the US Embassy on London’s Grosvenor Square into a luxury hotel, said the capital accounts for nearly two-thirds of its workloads with 59% of business stemming from there. Its work in North and South America accounted for 35% of turnover.

The number of staff at the practice increased from 82 to 95 sending its wage bill up from £3.6 million to £4.3 million.

But in a directors’ statement accompanying the results, director Louise Dier said: “We maintain tight control of our overhead costs.”

Dier said it had made provisions for a “small number of fees” on schemes that were terminated or finished. But it added: “We remain hopeful that some of these fees will ultimately be settled.”

In her note, Dier added: “Three existing projects have delivered almost £3 million of additional fees compared to 2015 and new work has been encouraging, notably in the latter part of the year.”

Chipperfield, which in May won a high-profile scheme to design a new £45 million arts complex in Edinburgh and earlier this year was told any remaining objections to its £100 million Nobel Centre (pictured) in Sweden’s capital Stockholm had been cleared, said pre-tax profits more than doubled from £598,000 to £1.3 million in the year to December 2016. Turnover was up 20% to £9.7 million.

The salary of the highest paid director, who is not named, went up from £137,000 to £213,000.

Two directors, German Oliver Ulmer and Belgian Rik Nys, who has been at the business more than 20 years, stepped down at the beginning of last December. But the accounts said the pair “remain actively involved in very senior managerial roles in the company”.