Heatherwick Studio founder took home £1.4m last year, almost a third of the profit earned by the practice
Thomas Heatherwick increased his annual dividend last year despite profits at his practice Heatherwick Studio crashing by 73% following a collapse in revenue from the US.
The firm reported pre-tax profit of £4.7m for the year to 31 March 2024, down from the £17.6m earned in the previous year, with turnover during the period falling from £49.6m to £42.3m.
Heatherwick’s £1.4m dividend was over £300,000 more than the £1.1m he received in 2023.
The bulk of the year’s fall in revenue came from a lull in the firm’s work in the US, where income fell by 87% from £14.4m in 2023 to £1.85m the following year.
All other key regions saw improved numbers, with income from Asia, the firm’s most lucrative market, increasing from £16.1m to £19.2m, and the Middle East rising to £16.5m from the £13.1m earned in the previous year.
Turnover also increased in the UK from £1.8m to £2m and in the rest of Europe from £1.1m to £1.6m, although it fell across the rest of the world, outside of the firm’s five key regions, from £3m to £1.1m.
The practice said the fall in turnover and profit was “fully expected following an exceptional year” in 2022 and 2023 when the studio won work on a string of large projects and several others that had stalled during the pandemic restarted.
Group staff numbers during the period edged up to a total of 234, from 225 the previous year, with the firm’s wage bill increasing from £18.9m to £20m.
The accounts also revealed the firm owes creditors a total of £26.4m, including £11.1m within the next year. The firm is currently paying off a £20m bank loan from Barclays which it took out in March 2022 at a rate of around £1.3m a year.
It is also owed £8.5m from debtors, including £6.2m from trade debtors, within the next year.
Heatherwick Studio partner and group leader Stuart Wood said: “The studio’s portfolio continues to grow both in terms of geography and the amazing range and scale of our projects.
“We are also bigger than ever as a team. Following a strong year after the pandemic, turnover is now on a level with previous years, as anticipated, and we expect it to continue on a gradual upward trend.”
Major jobs which the firm picked up last year included a transformation of London’s BT Tower into a hotel for US hotel chain MCR Hotels and a luxury shopping centre in Seoul, South Korea.
The firm also won its first job in South America, a seven-storey university building in Bogota, the capital of Colombia.
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