David Tonkin says international projects will bolster the engineer鈥檚 UK arm which was only region to see revenue shrink last year
Engineer Atkins鈥� UK chief executive David Tonkin hopes that work from international projects will bolster the UK arm of the business in the current tough market.
Speaking to 好色先生TV following , Tonkin said: 鈥淲e are looking at how we can move work to people rather than people to work.
鈥淭hese [international] projects provide good in-fills and we can swing our resources.鈥�
Revenue at engineer Atkins increased 9.4% in the last financial year but the UK arm of the business was the only part that saw revenues shrink, the firm鈥檚 results showed.
Revenue rose to 拢1.7bn in the year to 31 March 2012 but this was driven by overseas growth.
The UK business saw a decline in revenues of 7% to 拢859m, with more than 50% of the group鈥檚 revenues now coming from outside the UK. Operating profit in the UK fell 16% from 拢61.4m in 2011 to 拢51.6m, with margin down from 6.6% to 6%. Staff numbers also fell from 9,640 to 8,924 by 31 March.
Pre-tax profit across the group was rose 49% to 拢135.5m, although this was largely driven by a one off gain from restructuring the firm鈥檚 pension scheme and the sale of its UK asset management business in November last year.
It said underlying pre-tax profit was 拢102m - a 12% rise on last year.
The firm said UK trading was in line with its expectations. UK revenue was hit by delays in rail work coming to market, which Tonkin said cost between 拢6m and 拢7m in revenues, and the sale of Atkins鈥� asset management business in November last year.
鈥淲e have actually performed particularly strongly in a tough market,鈥� said Tonkin.
He said he expected all sectors in which the firm operates to grow slightly this year but that conditions remained difficult.
Tonkin said the firm was targeting opportunities to work on a number of Malaysian high speed rail and metro projects following prime minister David Cameron鈥檚 visit to the country earlier this year.
He said there were also emerging opportunities in Denmark and India for further rail and metro development project which could see work done in the UK.
He added that working across countries bolstered the UK firm鈥檚 capabilities. 鈥淔or our clients they know they are going to get a full capability of industry with experience from other markets,鈥� he said.
The firm currently has 1,200 vacancies in the UK and is recruiting staff, he said.
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