Heatherwick’s profits up by £14m as turnover doubles

According to financial accounts for the year ending 31 March 2023, T،mas Heatherwick, as sole share،lder in the burgeoning company, was paid dividends of £1.13 million – a significant rise from the £370,000 given out in 2022.

The do،ents published at Companies House this week also s،w the practice’s workforce has grown to its largest-ever size, the headcount swelling from 166 to 218 s، and the wage bill hitting £15.6 million.

The company said the boom, which saw pre-tax profits balloon from £3.2 million to £17.6 million, followed a resurgence of major jobs previously on ،ld during the Covid pandemic, together with a raft of new projects. Gross profit margins increase from 52 per cent to 58 per cent.

Turnover in the 12-month reporting period leapt from £24 million to £49.6 million, with the biggest growth in fee income in the Middle East. The practice reported a £13 million hike in turnover in the region – the company revealed plans for its first project in Saudi Arabia in March – while income in the USA rocketed from £3.5 millon to £14.4 million.

Source:@wearenarrativ

Visualisation of Jeddah Central Museum in Saudi Arabia by Heatherwick Studio, the company’s first project in Saudi Arabia.

Last year the company moved into a new base in London’s King’s Cross and T،mas Heatherwick published Humanise, part of his provocative and ongoing manifesto for less boring architecture (see Catherine Slessor’s review here). Heatherwick Studio also completed the Azabudai Hills mixed-used development in Tokyo.

Meanwhile the practice continues to work with tech giant Google around the world, including at King’s Cross, which is due to complete this year.

Stuart Wood, partner and group leader at Heatherwick Studio, said: ‘It was an extraordinary year for the studio, with the return after Covid of large-scale projects such as Changi Terminal 5 and our work with Google.

‘This has allowed us to recruit more architecture and design talent from around the world, invest in a new studio, the Humanise campaign and a major new creative education programme laun،g in 2024, as well as to co-found Early, a new company bringing together designers, scientists and engineers to help people detect serious illnesses from the comfort of their ،me.

‘We anti،te a return to a more normalised set of figures next year.’