Adjaye Associates has reported a pre-tax loss of £720,000, a significant decline from the £2.5 million profit recorded in its previous trading period.
Published on Monday, March 17 at Companies House, the accounts for the year ending December 31, 2023, reveal that David Adjaye’s firm saw a turnover drop of more than £3 million, falling from £20.4 million in 2022 to £17.1 million in 2023.
The company attributed part of its loss to a one-off exceptional item of £1.46 million, described as a “provision against withholding tax debtors.”
The firm’s workload in Asia dropped sharply from £4.8 million to £891,500, while income from the Middle East declined slightly from £14.1 million to £13 million. However, revenue increased in Africa (£261,000 to £1.4 million), the UK (£684,000 to £984,000), and the Americas (£398,000 to £641,000).
The financial period covered by the accounts coincides with the publication of sexual misconduct allegations against David Adjaye by the Financial Times—claims he has consistently denied.
During the same year, the firm implemented redundancies, reducing its London workforce, which stood at 110 employees at the time. By 2023, the total staff count had dropped to 85, with turnover per employee declining from £213,000 in 2022 to £202,000 in 2023.
Despite the reported loss, the company paid out a dividend of £1.89 million.
In the strategic report accompanying the figures, company director David Adjaye wrote:
“2023 was a commercially challenging year for the construction industry at large and this is reflected in our financial reporting for the period.
“Our position as one of the most diverse practices in the world, recognised for the representation we bring to architecture and for the quality and social impact of our work, together with our ability to be agile with resourcing, is a resilient basis from which to recover from a temporary downturn.”
The report, which describes the studio as having “built a robust reputation for both its built portfolio and intellectual and cross-cultural endeavors,” noted that Adjaye Associates continues to secure projects across the UK, the Americas, the Middle East, and Africa.
The firm has also won new commissions, including a major art project in Saudi Arabia and a large-scale residential development in France.
architectsjournal.co.uk