Doka clinches work on two super high-rise towers

Doka group CEO Josef Kurzmann.

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Doka’s experience on the Burj Khalifa in Dubai has resulted in the Austrian formwork specialist clinching contracts for two other super high-rise towers, group CEO Josef Kurzmann told Construction Week at the official opening of the company’s new UAE headquarters in Jafza South. These are the 555m-high Lotte Super Tower 123 in Seoul, South Korea and the 700m-high India Tower in Mumbai.

“Often we sell an entire solution, and carry through that solution. At Burj Khalifa, our engineers, together with the site people, tried to foresee any problems that could arise. It was a very complicated project with stringent safety and quality requirements. When I met the project director afterwards, he said he had seldom worked on a project with so few problems. This was due to such issues as having weekly site meetings, and always thinking two steps ahead to solve things in advance. The result was that we were on time, without any delay or accident,” says Kurzmann.

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The company’s purpose-built 50,000m² facility in Jafza South, more than twice the size of its previous Dubai premises, is a strong indication of the company’s faith in the region, says Kurzmann. “We have had a presence in the Middle East since the 1980s, beginning in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and have always enjoyed long-term relations with our clients. In the UAE, we first established ourselves in Sharjah and Dubai. We were one of the first companies in Jafza. Nowadays we have more than 400 employees in the Mena region.”

Kurzmann adds that the UAE facility is not only one of the company’s biggest sales subsidiaries, but a critical part of its global business. “We have 65 sales subsidiaries, and 140 logistical support points. We are still in the process of expanding throughout the region, with Oman as the latest addition. We also have a very strong presence in Qatar,” says Kurzmann.

“We do not follow our customers. We try to be a step ahead, and enter those markets where projects are coming up, and then when the international construction companies look to go there, we already have a presence.” Kurzmann explains that the new UAE headquarters is a fully-fledged facility. “Our subsidiaries are all standalone. This means sales, acquisition, process, sales, logistics and operations. One of our most important services is rental formwork. We also have our ready-to-use service, our reconditioning service, stockholding and financing, due to the rental.”

Kurzmann says the investment in the new UAE facility is substantial. “You need a great belief in the market. I think this is also the reason that customers, even in markets like this where the labour costs are very low, opt for the latest technology for maximum on-site efficiency.” Commenting on the impacting of the recent social unrest on the region’s growth potential, Kurzmann says: “We do not know what the future brings, and if you ask a hundred people, you will get a hundred different answers.

“I hope that all the necessary steps will be taken to ensure stability, because without that you have a lot of headaches. I believe that at the end it will be a positive process.” Kurzmann points to the great social protest movements that have engulfed Europe over generations, and says the Middle East “has a lot of things to work through. This is a process that will take some years, even though it seems to be happening really fast compared to elsewhere.”