Grimshaw still counting cost of aviation and covid hits

Monthly income at Grimshaw fell more than 30% last year as the impact of covid and its effect on its key aviation business continued to hit the firm’s numbers.

Turnover for the year to September 2021 was £54.6m, compared to the £118.2m it posted in the 18 months to September 2020.

It means average monthly income for the latest period was £4.55m compared to an average monthly income of £6.6m for the previous 18 months, a one quarter drop.

In its latest accounts, Grimshaw said it racked up monthly operating losses between April and December 2020 but since then “has returned to stable profitability and steady revenue growth”.

But it added turnover continues to be hindered by the suspension of work on a planned third runway at Heathrow Airport as well as the lingering impact of the pandemic.

The impact of the pandemic on the aviation sector has been enormous with the number of passengers using Heathrow, the country’s biggest airport, last year falling to 19.4 million, the lowest since 1972.

Pre-tax profit for the year was £4.1m, down from the previous 18 month period’s £8.6m, meaning average monthly profit tumbled from £477,000 to £341,000 – a fall of 29%.

The firm, which is working on a masterplan to upgrade New York’s JFK airport as well as the new HS2 station at London Euston, said Australia provided it with the biggest share of revenue last year – although the £16m it booked from the country was nearly half of the previous period’s £31m.

Income from the UK was down from £39m to £16m – a fall of 59% - while workloads from the US fell even more steeply, by two-thirds to £6m.

Grimshaw’s average number of staff at the year-end fell to 440 from 620, a slump of 29%, with the firm claiming £48,000 in furlough money from the government’s Coronavirus Jobs Retention Scheme and a further £949,000 from the Australian government’s equivalent, called Job Keeper. In the prior period, the numbers were £660,000 and £1.4m respectively.