In 2008, NIRAS established a solid foothold on the Swedish market with the
acquisition of TP Group and Johan Helldén AB. 140 employees now provide the
Swedish market with services within Building & Industry, Environment,
Planning, Development Aid, Project Management, Facility Management and
Investor Services from offices in Gothenburg, Linkoping, Malmö, Norrkoping
and Stockholm. The acquisitions have
expanded NIRAS, adding new expertise in property development, consultancy
services for tenants, property restoration and strategic localisation
planning; services that have been successfully introduced to the Danish and
Polish markets.
In Poland, we reinforced our strong position within Building& Industry
by expanding our services in Environment. A key element of our strategy was
the acquisition of the port design company PBP, which has given rise to new
opportunities for international and interdisciplinary cooperation.
To create focus on climate change and renewable energy, we have reorganised
our broad range of skills in climate change mitigation and adaptation and
launched a new Climate Change and Energy Division, which operates on a
global scale across all markets and disciplines. Furthermore, in Denmark,
we have significantly strengthened our position in the fields of GIS and
sociological analysis by acquiring U-GIS and Explora.
We have also seen a positive development in other NIRAS business areas,
such as Environment, Infrastructure and Development Cooperation.
2008 was also the year in which the economic crisis posed special
challenges for everyone. Even though the market has become tougher, we feel
that we are well prepared at NIRAS; we have been able to exploit the
opportunities arising from redeployment of employees, thereby cultivating
new market segments in, for example, the energy sector, the public utility
sector and, not least, the hospital sector.
In spite of large investments, NIRAS’ financial situation is strong. We
have no debt, the daily business creates positive cash flow and, last but
not least, we have 1,270 first-class employees with strong expertise that
is appreciated by our customers and in demand on the market.
The annual report presents a selection of the year’s exciting projects. For
example, NIRAS’ core expertise in port design, offshore wind turbines,
infrastructure and biogas has made significant international progress
during the year.
NIRAS’ fundamental objective is to create value for our customers,
employees and owners and we would like to take this opportunity to thank
our customers for the good, inspiring and trusting cooperation, the
employees for their dedicated efforts and focused approach to challenges
and the owners for their strong support during a period of both challenges
and development.
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Carsten Toft Boesen
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Karol Marcinkowski
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Managing director
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Director
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