Arup building firm revenues increase 9% to more than €70m

Revenues at Arup, one of the contractors involved in building the €1.7bn National Children’s Hospital (NCH) project, rose to more than €70m last year.

Professional services firm Arup provides mechanical and electrical engineering services for the project and new accounts for Ove Arup & Partners Ltd show that it earned a pre-tax profit of €189,471 as revenues increased 9% to €70.2m in its financial year to the end of March.

Staff numbers increased from 549 to 561, and staff costs rose from almost €41.5m to €45.2m.

Most of the new jobs came in technical posts, where job numbers rose from 487 to 500.

Five board members stepped down in April 2018 and this helped lead to directors’ pay, including pension contributions, sharply falling to €584,750.

The directors in the accounts say that the business posted revenues per employee of €124,000 in its 2019 financial year.

That compares with the €111,000 revenue per employee in 2018, and operating profit per staff member came to €8,200, up from €5,300.

The firm operates from four locations in the Repblic, including Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Cork.

It was also involved in the Gort to Tuam road and the redevelopment of Boland’s Quay office complex in Dublin.

The directors said that administrative expenses increased in line with turnover.

Arup “has a solid, diversified portfolio to navigate the market challenges and a breadth of quality employees", they said.

The profit last year takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €622,998. At the end of March last, shareholder funds at the company totalled €12.1m.