G&T managing partner enjoys a very lucrative year

Peter Sanders, managing partner of consultant Gardiner & Theobald, has been revealed as one of the industry's top earners, having received a salary of £751,000 in the year to 30 April 2005.

The figure is disclosed in the group accounts, which were posted at Companies House on Tuesday morning after a two-week delay. These are the first to be posted since G&T became a limited liability partnership in 2004.

Sanders' salary is almost a quarter of a million more than the £507,000 earned last year by Rob Smith, Davis Langdon senior partner.

G&T's operating profit for the year was £18.5m, on a turnover of £69.5m.

However, under the LLP structure, the operating profit includes fixed salaries for the firm's 81 equity partners. Excluding these, the actual profit that could be divided between the 81 G&T partners stood at £10.3m, meaning an average profit share of £126,543 for each equity partner.

In comparison, Davis Langdon posted a turnover of £106m. After the deduction of salaries, profit was up 37% to almost £18m.

G&T is only the second consultant after Davis Langdon to publicly reveal the earnings of its most senior partner, as limited companies are not required by law to disclose remuneration details.

G&T declined to make any further comment on the figures.

EC Harris was the first consultant to become an LLP in late 2003, and was quickly followed by a number of others, including building surveyor Tuffin Ferraby Taylor, engineer Zisman Bowyer & Partners, chartered surveyor Martin Associates and Devereux Architects.

The rationale behind moving to LLP status is to cap the amount for which partners would be personally liable if a project went wrong. It gained currency in light of the problems faced by accountant Arthur Andersen in the wake of the Enron scandal.

Publication of the results comes at the end of a disappointing year for G&T, during which its international alliance with fellow QSs Rider Hunt and Levett & Bailey broke down over operations in China.

The Beijing office of Levett & Bailey told Building last year that the partnership had broken down last May after a row believed to be over the rules of engagement in the Chinese market.

Meanwhile, the firm is still looking for a replacement for Sanders, who will step down from G&T this year.

The likely frontrunners include managing director Simon Jones and senior partner David Barratt.