Foster's to make 300 to 400 redundancies

Foster & Partners has announced plans to make around a quarter of its workforce redundant and has closed two of its 17 offices around the globe.

Despite repeated denials by senior management including chief executive Mouzhan Majidi, who insisted just two weeks ago that the firm could avoid any cuts to its 1,300-strong workforce, the practice announced on Tuesday it was making redundancies — understood to number between 300 and 400 staff members. It has closed offices in Istanbul and Berlin — the home of one of its best known projects, the Reichstag.

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The move was announced in a letter to staff, who will now undergo a 90-day consultation period, and pointed to “a significant decline in work within the practice”, according to staffers. It comes less than two years after private equity group 3i took a minority stake in the business, promising to provide funds for expansion.

News of the redundancies sparked anger among staff, who complained that just the previous day the practice had announced it had the fastest-growing profits of a private equity-backed firm, according to this year’s Sunday Times Deloitte Buyout Track 100.

Hailing this recognition on Monday, Majidi called the result testament to the strength of the Foster brand, adding: “It is a timely moment to have our financial performance and the investment of 3i recognised.”

One architect facing redundancy, who did not wish to be named, said he had seen others in tears following news of job losses.

“It was out of the blue,” he said. “There was no proper announcement, no meetings and — more sarcastically — we were told we were one of the largest ‘profitable’ companies… just yesterday.”

Foster & Partners is divided into six design groups, and another anonymous staff member said that around 40% of both group six —headed by Nigel Dancey — and group three — which is run by Majidi — had been laid off, as well as a large proportion of Gerard Evenden’s group five, which handles a number of schemes in the United Arab Emirates.

The closure of the Berlin office — which worked mainly on eastern European and Russian projects and is reported to employ

76 staff — is a particular blow to the firm.

Foster’s is a huge name in Germany thanks to projects such as Dresden central rail station and Frankfurt’s Commerzbank tower. News of the office closure there was described as “very sad” by president of the Berlin chamber of architects Klaus Meier Hartmann.

“Foster has done some very important projects,” he said. “It’s good to have important architects working here — good for our other architects and for the architectural culture.”

Speaking to BD at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona last October, Norman Foster insisted that the recession would not force him to cut jobs, and advised fellow members of the British profession to “stay lean and keen” to get through the credit crunch.

“I don’t foresee [job cuts at Foster & Partners]. Not at all,” Foster said. “Our company was born out of a period of extreme hardship so it’s challenging, but it is what it is.”