Gastel Zurawie was formed by the merger of EFH zurawie Wiez owe SA and Gastel SA. EFH specialised in the hire of Liebherr, Wolffkran and Terex Comedil tower cranes. It also sold Terex Comedil tower cranes into the Polish market. Gastel rented hydraulic, crawler and tower cranes across Poland; handled transportation of oversized loads; manufactured prefabricated products; and erected wind farms and telecommunications structures. This included operating the trade name Herkules to provide its crane and oversized transport services. It operated a fleet consisting of Terex-Demag, Grove, Liebherr and Krupp all terrain cranes; Terex-Demag crawler cranes; and Jaso tower cranes.
Herkules will remain as the hardware brand name of Gastel Zurawie, with every crane and transportation unit to be marked with the Herkules logo.
The new-look Gastel Zurawie has a fleet of 195 tower cranes, up to 330tm capacity; 33 mobile crane cranes, up to 450t capacity; three crawler cranes, with capacities in the 500-600t range; five transportation sets; and 21 overnormative transportation units. Financially, it will have assets totalling PLN300.4m ($101.1m), and is expected to generate annual revenues of PLN101.4m ($34.1m) and annual profits of PLN18.4m ($6.2m) from 1 January, 2010.
Although presented by both Gastel and EFH as a merger, Gastel Zurawie was actually formed by the incorporation of Gastel into EFH, says Piotr Guzowski, a member of the management board at Gastel Zurawie. This resulted in Gastel being removed from existence by the Polish commercial courts and left EFH, which subsequently began trading under the name Gastel Zurawie from 3 March.
The deal between Gastel and EFH was announced by Tomasz Kwiecin´ ski, president of the management board of Gastel, and Grzegorz Zólcik, president of the management board of EFH, in a press conference held at the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
At the time, Kwiecin´ ski and Zólcik said the creation of Gastel Zurawie would result in ‘a leader in the crane hire and overnormative transportation market’. They added the two companies offer synergies in various areas, with Gastel Zurawie offering a diverse source of revenues, extensive customer service capabilities, a Poland-wide scope of activity and a large contact book across various industries.
Guzowski says Gastel Zurawie is now in the process of merging the various departments of Gastel and EFH, a process that relies heavily on the “awareness and involvement of employees” to ensure the successful completion of the new company.
As well as reduced administration and finance costs, operational synergies have also emerged during the merger. “We use the hydraulic cranes to erect the tower cranes,” says Guzowski. “This reduces our operational cost.
“We can also offer complete services using tower cranes and hydraulic cranes together, which makes our position more competitive.
“The undoubted success of the company was to maintain its leadership position in the market despite the economic downturn,” he says. “Positive financial results could be achieved by diversification of activities.”
Future growth
The creation of Gastel Zurawie has by no means been completed, with other companies lined up as future acquisitions.
Guzowski says Gastel Zurawie is currently carrying out due diligence on construction firm PGMB Budopol SA and power construction company PBE Elbud Gdansk SA, two companies that are part of its ongoing growth plan to develop its market share.
“The main target of Gastel Zurawie is a stable and sustained growth of the company and its market value,” says Guzowski.
“Gastel Zurawie’s expansion will be achieved by consolidation in selected markets and organic growth. The company’s plans include further acquisitions of other entities, as well as hardware and construction equipment. The aim of Gastel Zurawie is to create a group capable of providing a complex services for our clients.
“The next step in the implementation of the strategy was signing the letter of intent with PGMB Budopol SA and responding to a public invitation to negotiate on the acquisition of PBE Elbud Gdansk SA shares,” Guzowski adds. “This would improve the competitiveness of the company in the construction market. Broadening the hardware base is also one of the tools to attract higher value contracts.”
Guzowski says Gastel Zurawie is now working on developing its own training centre for lifting equipment operators that will provide it with a new team of skilled workers, and give it “independence from the trends in the labour market”.
It has launched a prefabrication division, based in Karsin, Poland, producing prestressed concrete masts for use in telecommunication infrastructure, other wireless communication systems and power plants. It is also looking to gain a foothold in the production and transport of concrete through subsidiary company Stett- Pol, as well as concrete pump and mobile mixer rental.
Inevitable process
This is all part of an “inevitable process” of market consolidation, Guzowski says, “which in effect will create a narrow group of powerful actors with significant market power and financial potential”.
“The company intends to increase its market share by broadening the product offer to satisfy ever growing needs of the customers,” Guzowski says. “For this purpose, the company has amended its offer to new groups of services, products and goods.”
Piotr Guzowski says the company is hoping that the growth in wind power will see many more wind turbines installed.
“In our opinion wind parks could stand on two thirds of Polish territory.
“Currently in Poland there are about 301 professional installations with a capacity of about 724MW. By comparison, wind power in Germany is of 22,247MW. Crane services and oversized cargo, together with logistics services and construction site service, makes the company able to offer a complex service in this area.
“The positive and dynamic development of the energy industry and gained know-how will increase the company’s share of the market in subsequent years.”
