Almost all major contractors of large projects from the pre-crisis period when construction was flourishing are former, failed, and it is reasonable to ask where the results and profits gained during that exceptionally good time for builders are. The company Construction and Production Krk (GP Krk) recorded a 46 percent increase in total revenue in the first six months of this year and an improvement in results compared to last year.
“The revenue growth is partly due to excellent weather conditions in the first quarter,” said the CEO of GP Krk, Josip Purić, in an interview for the portal tockanai.hr.
“For GP Krk, 2016 was the hardest year in a long seven-year crisis. We recorded a 17 percent decline in total revenue to 527 million kuna, as well as a decline in other business results. Work carried out abroad partially recovered these results and made them somewhat bearable.”
GP Krk currently has contracted jobs worth over 500 million kuna. The construction of industrial and commercial facilities, as well as infrastructure in the area of waste management and wastewater, dominates.
“Unfortunately, our core business, road construction, continues to decline. We are building apartments for the market – urban villas – after a long pause,” explains Purić.
“Regardless of the current growth in construction and adaptation projects in tourism and high-rise construction in general, the situation in other parts of the construction industry, in the construction and maintenance of roads and infrastructure, is critically low. Now we can debate whether the major decision to build the highway to Split in three years should have been made or not. The tasks set at that time hold the answer about over-dimensioning, perhaps megalomania of that moment. The fact is that almost all major contractors of those jobs and that time are former, failed, and it is reasonable to ask where the results and profits gained during that exceptionally good time for builders are. Unfortunately, such rapid and strong development of construction in Croatia did not result in a breakthrough in foreign markets and is certainly one of the reasons for the further collapse of the entire construction sector in the country. It is evident that there was either a lack of courage or the ability to operate outside the safety of the home country,” said Purić.
The entire interview can be found at this link.
