Proiect Bucuresti Aims To Become A Major Architectural Firm In Europe

Proiect Bucuresti (PB), a well-known architectural, engineering, city planning and civil works design firm, yesterday announced that they were the first such firm in Romania aiming to become an important player on the European architectural market. "We have the ideal size for a firm and it enables us to be an European-grade player. As we already are market leader in Romania, this is the natural next step: to set out to foreign markets. Obviously, the business has decreased on the local market, because of the crisis, but PB has managed to maintain and even increase market share," said PB Development Manager Jean Herskovits.

Although the current crisis has strongly affected the entire construction industry, including PB, the crisis started at a time when the firm had already implemented most of a reorganization and modernization plan initiated upon the change in shareholders. Such circumstances enabled PB to be better prepared to face the challenges posed by adverse economic conditions, a press release to BURSA explains.

Moreover, PB continued to secure important public contracts put up for tender in 2009, including the heat insulation of many apartment buildings in Bucharest, the rehabilitation of the Bucharest Institute of Biology, the project concerning the Concert Hall (Sala Polivalenta) in Craiova and the development of a housing, office and commercial complex in the Baicului area.

One of PB"s business objectives for 2009 is to maintain the same financial results as in 2008, possibly with minor negative deviations. The firm is also planning to generate a turnover of more than 8 million EUR using all the existing 210 employees. As Western Europe is already showing signs of economic recovery, PB"s plan to enter EU markets could be regarded as a strategic move in preparation for the year 2010, the PB management noted in the press release.

A group of Romanian and foreign private investors acquired control over PB in 2007 and have since managed to bring significant improvement through technology and IT investments, as well as a constant focus on human capital development.