With the ongoing pandemic and restrictions, some companies faced operational or economic challenges in 2021. However, VALBEK was not affected. It solved its operations by working remotely. This allowed projects in progress to be completed as well as preparation for other contracts, guaranteeing work for several years ahead. It is also preparing to enter a new market in Sweden. The company is therefore looking for other designers and other specialist professions for cooperation not only in the Czech Republic.
Mr. Director, how did the company fare in another pandemic year that affected all of our lives?
I would say as expected. We don’t have the final economic results for 2021 yet, we will close the financial year in April. But so far, it looks like the plan we have set out for ourselves is basically coming to fruition. We have seen a downturn in our design work in the private sector, where we have not been able to bring the work to handover and subsequent invoicing for a number of reasons. This was mostly due to changes in the investor or legislative issues. Private investors are much quicker to react to changes in the market, they deal more with general price increases and so there are more changes. The public sector, on the other hand, has been growing. We are preparing several large projects for the Road and Motorway Directorate and the Railway Administration. However, we expect a downturn in our construction company BREX, as the price of labour and building materials is rising rapidly. The result for the entire group should be somewhere around last year’s figures.
Interview with Ing. Lukáš Hrubon
Have the pandemic measures meant any restrictions in the company’s operations?
Apart from the usual restrictions imposed by legislation, which we have adapted to, the pandemic fortunately did not affect our operations in any way. The most we had at any one time was about 10% of our employees sick, but this was manageable operationally. I appreciate the attitude of all colleagues who followed the rules and guidelines and contributed to the smooth running of the company. Unfortunately, I think the biggest impact on our work was the general “bad mood” in the company as a whole and the lack of contacts. People became distant from each other. Online meetings may be more effective, but we are human and we should meet.
Most of the employees at VALBEK work on computers, have you enabled homeoffice for them?
Yes, of course we have enabled our employees to work from home. For employers this has its advantages but also disadvantages and we would rather avoid it in the future. We have noticed that processes have slowed down. After all, people deal with more things in person more quickly than via email and other online tools. And hand on heart – we’ve also all gotten a bit more comfortable, used to being at home and maybe not putting as much effort into our work as we could. In some divisions where colleagues have been homeoffice for a long time, we’ve seen a drop-off in schedule performance. But of course there could be more than one reason for this. I understand that for those who had family or health problems, working from home, albeit in a limited mode, was the only way to juggle it all. However, with increased effort we met the work deadlines for the most part, so in the end the whole company was manageable even “remotely” and in “restricted mode” and I want to thank my colleagues for that.
Have you seen an increase in orders or has the construction industry slowed down?
As I outlined in the introduction, construction preparation has not stopped. I would estimate an increase of 20-30% here. However, the construction industry has slowed down, not only because of the increase in the price of materials and other inputs, but also because of the shortage of workers. However, the economic crisis is probably still ahead of us, and with it a slowdown in investment.
Which projects did you manage to complete last year?
This year saw the opening of the 15 km long section of the D11 Hradec Králové – Smiřice motorway, the birth of which was very complicated. It took about 12 years of planning alone. We have also completed the project documentation for the construction permit for the next section of the D11, namely D11 1009 Trutnov – the state border of the Czech Republic/PL. It is to be 21 km long. We are now working on the next stage of the VD-ZDS. We have also completed the tender documentation for the D3 motorway in the section below České Budějovice, Třebonín – Kaplice. This project is now under construction. The PD for the construction permit for this motorway in the 12 km section Kaplice nádraží – Nažidla has also been completed. On the D35 motorway, we are finalizing the documentation for the joint permit in the Litomyšl – Janov section.
D1109 Trutnov – Královec
We are also working on other interesting projects. One of them is the BMW test site in Sokolov, where we are designing the infrastructure and civil engineering. In an international consortium of companies, we won the preparation of the project for the zoning permit for the Podkrušnohorské tunnel (26 km), which will be part of the Dresden-Prague high-speed rail link. I must also mention the success in the tender for the high-speed line in the Modřice – Šakvice section. This is a 30 km long section of railway under Brno. Here we also succeeded in the association of international companies. We are also working on the reconstruction of the Barrandov Bridge, an important thoroughfare in our metropolis.
How is Valbek doing on foreign markets? Which market is dominant and where do you want to grow?
The dominant market for us is Slovakia, where we are the second largest company in the design market. We work on the largest railway projects: the Poprad-Krompachy and Malacky-Kúty railways. However, the preparation on roads has almost stopped at the moment – even though it is 2 years after the elections, there is still not much construction planned.
We started to do well last year in Ukraine, but now we have completely different concerns. With the war going on, we are trying to help our colleagues and their families as much as we can. We have almost twenty people working for us here and we are trying to provide them with facilities in Košice. We know almost all of our colleagues from Ukraine personally, about 80% of them we once took here to Liberec after their studies at the University of Kiev, gave them our know-how and when they were ready we sent them back to Ukraine to run our subsidiary there. As for our activities in Russia, we immediately discontinued them. We handed over the work to a partner and Valbek is quitting Russia because we no longer want to work for that country.
And our plans? At this point I can perhaps say that we are taking steps to penetrate the Swedish market. We are setting up a new company here, we have a local partner and I believe we will be able to open a Valbek branch soon. We want to design roads, railways and bridges. We want to start with 10 employees and plan to have up to 30 people here. But we don’t have to employ all professions, because we can do some of the work remotely from the Czech Republic, just as we do with our colleagues in Ukraine.
Do you have enough employees and can you cover all orders without any problems?
The construction industry has been struggling with a shortage of people for a long time and we have more orders than people. We have contracted work almost 2 years in advance. Valbek is known for its quality work and investors are often happy to wait for us. We are not and do not want to go down the outsourcing route, although we could still pick up work that way.
However, there are never enough quality specialists, so we are always looking for technical professionals, such as electricians, aerialists, gas engineers, specialists in the field of alarm systems, overhead lines, etc. People with a high school or university degree. Of course, we are looking for experienced designers, but on the other hand, it has worked well for us to work in schools and offer students internships and traineeships and to “hook” our employees in this way while they are still studying.
What do you see as the advantages of working for VALBEK?
I have to say that our current employees don’t leave us much. We are a great team of people here with common interests and we socialise outside of work. I think our people are really loyal to VALBEK. And we try to accommodate them as much as we can – from lots of benefits, a modern working environment, customised work, to support in their further studies. We also invest in the equipment they need to do their job or to make it easier for them. People can always come up with their own suggestions too. We are a stable company, we always have job security for several years ahead, we have no debts and we have a clear ownership structure headed by Czech owners. Maybe this is the biggest benefit for me.
Excursion I/35 Časy – Ostrov
How do you see 2022 going for VALBEK?
This year we want to complete the change of our company structure. As of May 1, Valbek&Prodex spol. s.r.o. in Slovakia will be changed to Valbek SK s.r.o., thus completing its integration into the structure. Thus, under the holding structure of VALBEK-EU a.s. there are the design companies Valbek CZ and Valbek SK, the company BUNG CZ, which provides technical supervision services, the company AZ GEO performs exploration and geological work, the company V-CON and BREX prepare and implement construction. Valbek UA is a subsidiary of Valbek CZ, as will the Swedish Valbek SE.
As I have already mentioned, we are expecting the beginning of the economic crisis, which will certainly mean a slowdown in the preparation of construction. However, in the short term, we do not expect a decline in economic results, because we have the work contracted. The election of a new board of directors will also be an important change. The owners have decided to step down from their senior positions and will continue to serve on the Supervisory Board. We are therefore looking forward to a change of management, which will certainly bring new impetus to the development of our company.
Thank you for the interview.