Russian hotel work boosts firm

The country’s only listed architect narrowed underlying losses last year with a strong performance in Russia and a re-emerging office market in the Gulf helping workloads rise.

Aukett Fitzroy Robinson made a pre-tax profit of £367,000 in the last six months of its financial year to September 2011 with overall underlying losses for the year halved to £394,000.

But one-off exceptional items relating to the closure of its office in Poland meant overall group pre-tax losses actually increased 66% to £955,000. Turnover for year was up from £7.5 million to just over £9 million.

Chief executive Nicholas Thompson said it had pulled out of Poland because too much of the investment was going into building roads and other infrastructure projects.

Further east, the firm said it returned a profit in Russia on the back of hotel work for leading American brands such as the Hilton and Hyatt chains who were opening new hotels in regions away from Moscow.

And he said there were signs the Dubai office market was coming back – mainly in refurbishment and remodelling. “There’s virtually no new projects coming forward but there’s work refurbishing buildings that are already there,” he added. The firm has an office in Abu Dhabi but as a sign of its returning confidence is looking at opening one in Dubai.

It is also eyeing jobs in Brazil, Argentina and Colombia but closer to home said the main UK market was confined to London. “If the regional market comes back, it will come back in pockets,” he said.