How Hidroconstructia managed to achieve 21% growth in construction industry's hardest year

Hidroconstructia, the biggest construction company on the domestic market by turnover in 2008, posted 21% growth in RON business to 1.12 billion RON (264.7 million euros) last year, because of the contracts funded by the European Union signed in the years before that.

The company was one of the few major construction firms to have boosted their business in 2009, given that the market fell by 17% to 12 billion euros.

Hidroconstructia had 132 contracts whose value stood at 1,079 billion RON (255 million euros), 82 of which will continue in 2010 and will be worth 650 million RON (some 155 million euros). These data reveal that Hidroconstructia achieved growth because of contracts signed in the previous years.

"Infrastructure works accounted for approximately 60% of the 2009 turnover, compared with 40% generated by the rest of the projects, which are mainly hydropower and hydrotechnical projects," says Romeo Bogdanovici, human resources manager of Hidroconstructia.

Yet the company budgeted a decline in turnover to 896 million RON for 2010, because of the low number of tenders organised by local authorities and private sector in 2009.

"The year 2009 was a slow year in terms of procurement procedures started by public central and local authorities and private investors. Moreover, a significant number of the investments in 2009 stopped or were frozen as a result of the halt in financing and/or the failure of the Romanian authorities to come up with their share of the co-financing, which had disastrous consequences on some construction companies," Bogdanovici says.

Hidroconstructia cut about 10% jobs, so that it is now employing 6,800 people and is considering going forward with the process in January - March 2010 period, depending on how the projects is working on are financed.