Danish contractor bucks the trend

CONSTRUCTION: International contractors are becoming increasingly national. But Pihl & Søn is bucking the trend and has doubled its revenues by maintaining an international strategy

For more than a century, Danish contractors have carried out important and challenging projects all over the world. They are still engaged in many countries and ready to continue the old tradition of exporting their know-how. Their activities comprise infrastructural projects e.g. roads, railways, marine installations, airports, power plants, dams and water supplies, and many kinds of buildings. The solutions they offer include the design, as well as providing financing in one form or another.

     “Danish contractors are performing well abroad, thanks to highly skilled personnel who are good at planning and managing often complicated tasks in many different environments,” says director Søren Langvad, Pihl & Søn. Besides being a director of one of Denmark’s largest contractors, Søren Langvad chairs the export committee of the Danish Construction Association.

     “The trend we are currently seeing is that international contractors are ceasing activities outside their own country borders, and are reluctant to accept contracts which carry high levels of risk,” he says. “At international level, fewer European companies are now offering their services abroad. But Pihl & Søn, along with other Danish companies, has bucked the trend. We have maintained a strategy which is loyal to our principles of having activities both in Denmark and abroad.” Over the last five years this strategy has resulted in a doubling of revenues for Pihl & Søn, and there is an increasing influx of orders from abroad with a suitable mix of large scale tasks in Europe, Africa and the Caribbean.

http://www.danskbyggeri.dk