Hopkins’ profit jumps 65% after ‘challenging’ period

Hopkins Architects has filed one of the best sets of results in its 30-year history, marking the end of a difficult time in recent years.

Pre-tax profit shot up 65% to £1.4m for the year ended March 2006, compared with £835,000 for the same period the year before.

Bill Taylor, managing director at Hopkins, conceded that the practice had experienced a challenging few years.

He said: “This is the best year for a while. Our results went down because we had a couple of projects that got shelved and there was a general downturn. There is a lot more work around now. One of the principal reasons for the increase is more projects in North America and Dubai.”

Turnover at the firm, which employed 86 staff in the UK in 2006 and 20 in Dubai, also rose to £7.3m for the year ended March 2006. This is an increase of 22% on £6m for the same period in 2005.

The practice, which was shortlisted for the Stirling prize in 2006 for Evelina Children’s Hospital in central London, is working on a cancer centre for University College London, the Dubai World Trade Centre and a science block at Yale University.

The firm also spent £500,000 on purchasing its own shares, part of a “succession planning” programme. It is understood they will be reallocated to senior members in the practice.

The highest paid director, thought to be Sir Michael Hopkins, the chairman, or Bill Taylor, took a wage cut in 2006, receiving £111,000 compared with £159,000 in 2005.