The engineering giant charged with keeping London’s Olympic flame burning this summer has provided an antidote to the Bank of England’s gloom after a UK hiring spree.
Atkins — which oversaw the transformation of a derelict East London site into a glittering Olympic park — was responsible for regulating gas flows to the flame during the Games and is now working on the dismantling of temporary venues.
Despite warnings from Sir Mervyn King this week that the UK will take until 2015 to regain its pre-recession peak, Atkins chief executive Uwe Krueger said today the Olympics had given the company “fantastic momentum”. He said: “Applications during the Olympics were up 58%. We had 20,000 people apply through the website.”
Atkins now has 300 more staff in the UK than a year ago as its rail arm enjoys rising orders from Network Rail. The company is also busy on the £15 billion Crossrail project and is carrying out environmental impact assessments for parts of the proposed High Speed 2 route. “Headcount is going up in the UK business, which is the best proxy for its health,” Krueger added.
Pre-tax profits edged 5% lower to £43.9 million as Atkins endured delays to contracts in the Middle East and the US, but the City was impressed by its growth in other sectors such as energy, bidding the shares up 7% or 49p to 687p.
