Skanska is aiming to hire more UK specialist contractors to work on its £1.4bn New Karolinska Solna University Hospital (NKS) in Stockholm, following deals worth £30m for drylining contractors Astins and Measom.
Skanska is now planning to let another £5m-£6m of specialist packages on Sweden’s largest project to UK firms, including radio protection building works for x-ray facilities, more drywall packages and fit-out work.
Paul Wright, operations director at Skanska UK, who is seconded to NKS as project manager, told CM: “Where there is no on-the-ground experience in Sweden, we are looking abroad. UK firms cannot compete on price alone, but we look at the value they bring in terms of technology and skills. The sheer scale of the project, which is now 40% complete, makes importing expertise vital.”
The Astins and Measoms packages were the result of collaborative project between government agency UK Trade & Investment and Skanska to help UK firms export their skills to Sweden and are understood to have helped the firms create or safeguard 95 jobs.
Skanska is planning to let another £5m-£6m of work on Karolinska hospital
Announcing the £30m contract awards last week, business secretary Vince Cable said: “UKTI’s collaboration with Skanska on this project involved managing the market entry process by assisting and supporting the UK companies wishing to explore this project further, and ensuring they had the information required to ‘price-up’ their tenders so they were realistic and competitive. This process ensured that the UK companies were successful when pitted against established domestic Swedish bidders as well as existing and potential international competitors.”
Specifically, it is understood that UKTI worked with Astins and Measom to help them get to grips with Swedish labour law, building legislation, taxes and the local price index.
For Astins, its £18m Swedish contract represents its first ever overseas deal. On the company’s website, Mark Pettit, managing director, said: “We are delighted to be on site and working alongside Skanska to deliver this project, Karolinska Hospital has always been a big opportunity for us and is something we have been working towards for a long time.
“Our expansion overseas into Sweden is a huge milestone for everybody in the company and we are planning that it will be the introduction to building a successful business in Sweden and the first of many international projects in healthcare and airport construction.”
Last year, the UK government set itself the target of doubling exports by 2020 across all sectors of the economy, and construction – at less than 2% of all UK exports – is still a weak link in the chain (see our feature on the subject in September). The new Industrial Strategy for Construction set out several measures to help slash the construction trade gap.
Research carried out by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills in support of the Industrial Strategy for Construction shows that other countries have far higher construction exports relative to their overall exports.
The NKS project covers 320,000 sq m, and is due to open in phases in 2016-2017.
