Losses at AHMM widen as firm looks to cut costs

AHMM has made a pre-tax loss for the third year running, the architect’s accounts for the year to March 2023 have revealed.

The firm sank £1.9m into the red, up from a pre-tax loss of £1m in 2021-22 and a pre-tax loss of £503,484 the year before.

The practice behind the makeover of the IBM building on London’s South Bank said in the six months after the 2022-23 accounting year, it had started a planned 20% reduction of its workforce, along with a review of spending across all parts of the business. It added that it had triggered a break clause in one of its studios that would cut 25% of its UK studio space from this year.

In a note accompanying the accounts, the firm said the war in Ukraine and knock-on impact of inflation and rising energy costs had hit its bottom line.

“These factors, in conjunction with the Bank of England’s decision to increase interest rates as a means of countering the jump in inflation have adversely impacted some of our clients’ financial assessments of their projects, causing some to be paused indefinitely or else their start to be deferred for a period,” the report said.

It added that changes to building regulations in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster and “greater scrutiny and political pressure” in relation to the carbon impact of new-build projects versus refurbishment were also factors that impacted on clients’ “willingness to proceed with certain projects”.

Revenue at the business during the period rose 14% to £50m.