Mr. CEO, what would you say about the origins and development of VALBEK?

 

The company was founded in November 1990 by 6 people who left the Pragoprojekt design office at that time. Initially we worked on small projects in the Liberec region and gradually worked our way up. In 2005, 120 people worked in the company and today there are 360 of us. This threefold increase in employees in 15 years perhaps best documents the development of the company. At the moment we are one of the largest design organizations in the Czech Republic, we have branches in Slovakia, Ukraine, Russia and we are also trying to establish ourselves in Sweden and Germany. The company headquarters is located in Liberec and we also have branches in the Czech Republic in Ústí nad Labem and Pilsen. The umbrella company is VALBEK-EU, which is divided into VALBEK CZ, VALBEK and PRODEX SK. There are 4 other companies operating under these companies. However, at the moment their merger is in progress and in the future we would like to present ourselves only under the names VALBEK CZ and VALBEK SK.

 

There is talk everywhere that it is a problem to find new, good employees. How do you manage it and how young or old is your work team?

 

We have always had a very young team since the beginning of our activity and nothing has changed. I am already one of the oldest in it today. We recruit young people directly from the schools, whom we educate in our own image. There really are no ready-made people on the labour market, but we have no shortage in this respect. We don’t try to outsource people to competing companies, we prefer to nurture them.



I/35 Bridge Václavice


What does VALBEK do?

Our comprehensive portfolio of activities allows us to deal with projects in the field of bridges, roads, tunnels, railway corridors, as well as rail transport, traffic engineering, environmental services, water management, surveying and civil engineering. We provide technical supervision, visualization, project management and implementation, construction production and technological units.

 

Which significant buildings from the distant past would you like to reminisce about?

One of those grandiose projects where we were very successful was the implementation of the D8 motorway in the section Ústí nad Labem – state border. A total of 191 buildings were constructed on this project, and we won a number of awards for it, because these buildings were of a high technical and technological standard and the whole construction was very well integrated into the surrounding landscape. The tram line connection between Liberec and Jablonec or between Plzeň and Bory was interesting. Among the tunnels, the Panenská tunnel, which is the longest motorway tunnel in the Czech Republic and the first ever motorway tunnel to be built in the Czech Republic, cannot be omitted. In Slovakia, we were very successful in the construction of the D1 Mengusovce – Janovce tunnel. We won the 2007 Construction of the Year award for the motorway, border bridge between the Czech Republic and Germany, which was realised in complicated geological, technical and environmental conditions in record time

 

Which interesting projects are you involved in now?

We are currently working on the D3, D11 and D4 motorways, so you could say that we are already a long-term partner of the investor in motorway construction. In Slovakia, we recently completed a really nice piece of the D1 motorway around Poprad and now we are doing the Košice bypass. In terms of railway construction, we are designing Litoměřice – Mělník or Týniště nad Labem – Hradec Králové. In Slovakia, we are building Poprad – Krompachy, which is a beautiful project with a length of 80 km. We are also designing a test circuit for BMW for about CZK 10 billion, where the building permit should come into force right now and construction could start in August. In the Pilsen region, we are carrying out industrial hall projects. We are also designing the Poříčí and Opevnění tunnels on the D11 Trutnov – state border motorway, and now we are preparing for the railway tunnel under the Ore Mountains. Last year, the newly reconstructed building of the Czech Beseda won the 2019 Building of the Year Award of the Liberec Region. The range of our works is really wide. We are involved in large projects, which satisfies us and fills us with pride.



Dětské centrum Chocerady -v soutěži Stavba roku Středočeského kraje 2020


How satisfied were you with the economic result of 2019 and how is the company’s turnover developing in general?

We were certainly satisfied with the result of 2019. The same as in previous years. Our turnover has been developing quite evenly and we have made a reasonable profit every year. We don’t have any big shortfalls or extreme increases. Every year we grow a little bit, so that the development of our turnover can be called a steady and gradual growth.

 

How did you manage to cope with the very unpleasant coronavirus crisis?

Relatively well, I think. We have a well-built management system and we have people who are normal and who are very easy to get along with. Of course, we kept to the mandatory quarantines, we used the home office, and those who could and wanted to came to work. So far, I can say that we haven’t had any major problems. We have taken it rather positively. The coronavirus crisis has given us a bit of a breather, we’ve put our house in order and got our company processes together. We are gradually restructuring. We see this crisis more as a stepping stone for the future. The period before the coronavirus was already very, very, very overheated. Everything has been pushed to the limit, which is never a good thing.

 

So how do you see the outlook for this year?

There will definitely be some slowdown, but I don’t think there is anything to worry about. The labour market will also calm down a bit and there will probably be a cooling of wage demands, which have often no longer been commensurate with the work done. It is clear from the statements of government officials that the state will continue to try to secure the funding that should go to transport infrastructure, so we are preparing hard and we want to succeed in the design work market in the future. I therefore do not expect a devastating downturn.

Administrativní budova KONPLAN s.r.o., Plzeň v soutěži Stavba roku 2020


Why should VALBEK be at the forefront of investors’ minds?

Perhaps because we are after quality and the development of new products for design rather than increased turnover. We are investing heavily in the development of new technologies and we want to bring products such as construction project management, controlling, scheduling, BIM design, digitization, scanning, etc. to the market. We want to focus on the utility value of construction works, or high sustainability of a project and being able to calculate it and demonstrate that our solution will deliver savings to investors in the future. We have not quite been able to push this with all investors yet, but we are convinced that this is the right way and the trend towards success. And why else choose us? Because we are a fair company and our word can be relied upon. We are fair not only to investors, but also to the landscapes, people and places our work touches.

 

Where do you see VALBEK in the next 10 years?

With everything we are implementing now and want to implement in the future, I think VALBEK will become even more professional. It should profile itself in quality, monitor the sustainability of investments and develop infrastructure projects. That is where I see our future. We have invested a lot in water management and we would like to become market leaders in the field of water sustainability in the landscape. We will also need to invest heavily in research and development, testing and using new materials and new types of construction. Invest in modelling. To go centralised and to be much more involved in ecology. We have lots of ideas. And we’ll make them happen. Simply put, our long-term goal should be to continually push our industry to an even higher standard than it already is.