Our overall sales improved by 27 %. We sold some 50 projects. We doubled our sales in Norway and quadrupled our sales in Sweden. Our team grew with 7 full-time and 5 part-time experts. I’m also glad that our sales in Finland remained on the same good level as in previous years despite fierce competition. Growth is challenging in this economic climate, so we can be very proud of our excellent results.
We’ve had large projects in the past now and then, but as 2016 made these projects more regular, we also experienced another kind of growth. We grew our knowledge, and we grew as an organisation. Some projects worth mentioning are Fingrid’s green field Vuoksi station (110 kV) and 9 substations we are building for Caruna and Elenia. The way I see it, it’s vital that we grow into these big, challenging projects, proving our competitiveness and earning the trust of our customers.
Last year was also important image-wise. We took part in several interesting discussions with some of our major customers and were invited to several key supplier meetings to give our opinion regarding future investments. VEO also received lots of visitors who were very interested in our modular solutions. The important thing for us now is to keep going in this direction. One step in the right direction was to open an office in Västerås. It marks a good starting point for a long-term, profitable growth in Sweden.
New investments are being prioritised instead of repairs and maintenance. My guess is that the investment pace will be high for the following 5 years.
Fredrik Grankull
Recent years have proved that new investments are being prioritised instead of repairs and maintenance. My guess is that the investment pace will be high for the following 5 years – especially among big distribution network companies and national grid companies. Let’s see what Finland’s new renewable energy strategy brings to the table to boost the investments in that segment. However, despite many question marks on the market, I feel that our substation unit is equipped to take on whatever comes next. As an EPC contractor, we are used to working with all aspects in turnkey deliveries – from civil works to high voltage and advanced protection and control solutions, all held together through strong engineering and project management knowledge. Sometimes we are faced with very demanding sites – e.g. building a substation in central Stockholm with the space confinements that means – but at VEO we welcome the challenge. Because that’s what international integrators do.
