GROWTH VIA ACQUISITIONS

ENVIRONMENT: Denmark is the world’s capital regarding solutions to environmental problems. Niras is one of the largest consulting engineers, and has been involved in thousands of international environmental projects over the last 50 years.

“When the company started in 1956, our competencies were primarily based on projects in Greenland, and on natural gas. That was an unsustainable project portfolio long-term, so in the early 1980s we changed the strategy”, says Torben Chrintz, who heads the Environment and Energy division. Niras embarked on an acquisition strategy, which not only compensated for the company’s insufficient size, but also added new competencies and ensured a greater geographic spread. Today Niras has offices in the Nordic countries, Poland, Bulgaria, Russia, the Middle East, Tanzania and Vietnam. The latest addition is in Ukraine.

Major player
“The environmental area accounts for a third of total revenues”, says Torben Chrintz. With 250 people employed in the environmental division, Niras is one of the largest players in this area in northern Europe. Chrintz believes that growth in the environmental area has to be international, because this is where the most potential lies. Accordingly, the structure in the environmental division was changed so that in principle everybody can work internationally. The international department was closed, and through courses and supplementary training all staff were geared up for carrying out international tasks. The new strategy can be summarised: It is not one person’s job to globalise Niras – it is everybody’s job.

One of the core competencies is solving problems oncerning soil and groundwater pollution. 150 people work in this area, which places Niras very high on an international scale, measured on both volume and competence.

Active in USA
Niras is very active on the American market, says Torben Chrintz. “We have succeeded in impressing the Americans with our knowledge and competencies in building and using biogas plants in the agricultural sector, and we expect a lot from this market. This focus area should be seen in the context that some years ago we changed strategy and acquired a number of core competencies in alternative and renewable energy. At the time, it was a bad decision in financial terms, but from a visionary point of view it was good. Today we are confident that the American market will be very promising for us, especially seen in relation to the Bush plan, where USA wants to reduce its oil imports by 75% by 2025”.

http://www.niras.com