FORMWORK expert Doka has managed to buck the global downtrend in business by initiating a number of strategic moves both on the international and local levels.

In Saudi Arabia, for instance, the company has endeavoured to beat the recession by offering attractive sale and rental prices, introducing new products such as the Framax Xlife framed formwork system and H20 top timber beams and boosted its sales force to increase its market penetration and turnover.
Doka, which was established in Riyadh in 1981 as a division of Mahmoud Othman and Sons Company, supplies formwork and scaffolding on a purchase, rental and rent-purchase and buy-back basis. The company reports that it has registered more than 30 per cent increase in business in the Saudi market over the past year.
“We recorded good business levels last year and expect to maintain the same sales momentum during this year as well as next year,” says Saudi-based Doka spokesman Frank Kircher, adding that he sees good prospects for the company in the kingdom during the next five to 10 years.
Towards this end, the company plans to employ more staff, particularly in its sales and engineering department, to cover all areas of the kingdom effectively and thereby increase its turnover. From the third quarter of this year, Doka Saudi Arabia will offer a new service to its customers through which the company will maintain, repair and recondition the formwork material that customer had previously purchased from the company. This will enable customers to gain long-term benefits from the investment made for material purchase.
Doka’s portfolio includes the most prominent projects in the kingdom, such as the Kha’ala Project in Makkah Jamarat Bridge in Makkah; the King Abdul Aziz University of Science and Technology (Kaust) in Thuwal; and cooling towers in Jubail. Current projects include Jabal Omar in Makkah, King Saud University in Riyadh, Lamar Towers in Jeddah, Sama headquarters building in Riyadh, King Abdullah Economic City in Rabigh, and Princess Noura University in Riyadh.
Apart from supply of formwork, Doka also offers planning and engineering services and can provide immediate delivery of its products from stock, according to Kircher. Its Saudi operation is supported by offices in Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam and Bahrain, and is served by three warehouses covering 36.000 sq m and a staff of nearly 100 people.

International level
Meanwhile on the international level, the formwork specialist is “turning crises into opportunities” in the words of Josef Kurzmann, executive director of Doka Group.
“There is no doubt that business conditions are very different now from what they were only a few months ago,” Kurzmann comments. “After years of vigorous growth, many areas of the economy have now been hit by the credit crunch. The world economic crisis has not passed us by either, of course, but nobody ever solved a problem by sitting down and moaning about it. We see crises as opportunities and are looking ahead with realistic optimism!”
He says Doka is a rock-solid, well-prepared company with highly committed staff, a cost-effective product line and a global distribution network. “We have a tightly structured organisation and are confident that together with our customers, we shall tackle the challenges effectively,” Kurzmann says.
In recent years, Doka has registered high double-digit revenue growth and garnered many spectacular construction projects to its credit – crowning its performance with record-breaking figures last year.
Despite today’s difficult conditions, the company has set itself the ambitious goal of further increasing its market share. “To do this, it is absolutely imperative for us to seize every single market opportunity that presents itself. We have focused our energies and will be enhancing our proximity to the customer and our service offerings still further,” he says.
These efforts have been assisted by recent moves made by Doka to optimise costs and business processes. “This means we now have an even more effective organisational structure, modern technologies and a highly cost-saving product range that gives our customers measurable benefits – which is more relevant than ever in the present economic climate. This is the basis, from which we shall tackle today’s tough challenges,” says Kurzmann.
Also in light of declining construction industry demand, Doka has no intention of making any cutbacks in its dense worldwide distribution network.
Says Kurzmann: “Closeness to the customer has always been a vitally important success factor for Doka, and it still is. If you’re serious about helping your customers to minimise their construction-related project risks like deadline pressure, quality and safety, then you simply have to be able to keep their jobsites quickly and amply supplied with engineering capability, project expertise and formwork equipment. This is why we shall still be investing in extending and upgrading our high-performing distribution network in 2009, albeit in modest doses, despite the fall in demand in many of our markets. It would not be realistic to expect the individual construction firm to put up with longer delivery times just because of a downtrend in demand in the industry as a whole.”
Doka is a full-line supplier for all areas of cast-in-place building construction. In addition to a comprehensive line of formwork products, it also offers a package of services that is tailor-made for its customers’ needs.
He elaborates: “Formwork planning is still at the heart of this package. We always try to maximise the added value for our customers by adapting the formwork solutions in a situation-specific way.”
With price being a significant factor against the backdrop of the global credit crunch, Kurzmann points out the difference between the two types of customers for whom price is a major issue. “There are cost-conscious customers, and there are price-sensitive ones. Customers who focus on the total costs when buying or renting formwork equipment go for Doka because they know that we can give them a complete, cost-saving solution for all areas of building construction and civil engineering.
“As for the price-sensitive customers, we aim to make them aware of the importance of taking the total-cost point of view and not just look at the purchase or rental prices. When you’re investing in new formwork equipment, it’s not enough to look only at the purchase price. What counts is a convincing price/performance ratio. Factors such as the manufacturing quality and durability of the formwork equipment, and the problem-solving capability of our formwork technicians, take on far greater significance. With the advanced technologies and systems that we use to produce, develop and distribute our products, we have nothing to fear from any price comparison. Our high manufacturing quality also delivers measurable added value to clients who rent formwork equipment. With our comprehensive service package, we can achieve significant added value for these customers too.
“We are not interested in short-term revenues at any price, but strive for lasting long-term business relationships offering win-win solutions,” he says.
Safety is vital criterion in the construction industry and all Doka formwork systems come with integral safety solutions to provide the greatest workplace safety, he continues.
The firm also considers close, networked co-operation with construction firms as crucially important to ensure safe and accident-free forming operations,
“It’s not enough just to have safety-optimised formwork equipment … it’s equally important to make sure that the site crew know how to use the formwork properly and safely. This is why we join with construction firms and external experts to offer special seminars on ‘Workplace safety during forming operations’. These courses make a significant contribution to greater safety on construction sites,” he says.
Doka has received a number of awards for its products last year. One such product is the Cantilever Forming Traveller launched in 2008, which he describes as a “major developmental leap-forward in the field of cantilevering that sets new standards in terms of cost-effectiveness, versatility, and active and passive safety.”
Another product is the new Eurex top floor prop, which distinguishes itself from its predecessor by its longer service life and greater ease of handling. In addition, there are several development projects in the pipeline, which will underpin Doka’s position as the formwork sector’s innovation leader for years to come, he indicates.
While Doka has many prestigious projects to its credit, Burj Dubai stands out as one that gave it a high-profile opportunity to underline its high capability in automatic climbing technology. “The technically demanding forming operations were accomplished without accident and within the stipulated construction time. What is more, for Burj Dubai we developed a new self-climbing system, Xclimb 60, whose modular design concept enables it to be used either as crane-climbed or automatic climbing formwork, and even as a crane-independent protection screen,” Kurzmann points out.
Since then, Doka has landed several other prestigious major orders in the field of super-high-rise buildings including some of the tallest buildings in Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Chile, South Africa and China.
“Doka not only stands for great problem-solving capability on technically challenging large-scale projects, but is also a highly capable and dependable partner on all kinds of construction projects – a partner whose reliability and cost-saving formwork solutions create the greatest added value for its customers,” concludes Kurzmann.