Atkins sees revenues rise despite drop in UK business

The company’s preliminary end-of-year results revealed a revenue increase from £1.56bn to £1.71bn in 2011–12, with more than 50 per cent now coming from abroad as the company continues with its diversification strategy.

Annual UK revenue for the company, which is the official engineering design services provider for this year’s Olympics, dropped 7.2 per cent compared with the previous year, from £926.5m to £859.9m, while operating profit fell 16 per cent from £61.4m to £51.6m.

The UK currently accounts for 40–45 per cent of the company’s total revenue but this is set to fall to 25 per cent in three years’ time as its workforce takes on jobs overseas.

David Tonkins, Atkins UK regional managing director, told The Engineer: ‘We have set out as a group to grow our international capability in excess of the UK to rebalance the company geographically.’

Tonkins explained that the company has seen particularly strong growth in Hong Kong, China, the Middle East and Scandinavia.