AHMM nosedives into red

AHMM nosedived into the red last year as the impact of the covid-19 pandemic took an axe to its bottom line.

The practice of RIBA president Simon Allford slumped to a pre-tax loss of nearly £504,000 in the year to March 2021 from a £6m profit last time.

The architect blamed the impact the of the pandemic which it said caused jobs to be mothballed in the early weeks of the crisis while nervous clients were slow to get new schemes off the ground once the initial covid wave had passed.

The firm behind British Land’s Norton Folgate mixed-use project on the City fringe at Shoreditch said revenue during the period was down 22% to £43.3m with most of the fall coming from the UK where income slipped 22% to £40m.

AHMM, which did not pay a dividend during the year, said it claimed £278,000 from the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme during the period.

But the firm’s headcount remained relatively stable, with the average number of staff dropping by just two to 486.

The accounts said that the actual number of full-time equivalent staff dropped by 6% to 467, although there were 503 staff on payroll at the end of the accounting period.

AHMM said that several jobs had been given planning post year-end including the refurbishment of the IBM Building on London’s South Bank along with its proposals to revamp the former flagship store of bust retailer Debenhams at 334 Oxford Street in central London.