TOP ESTONIAN ENTERPRISES

Photo: Toomas Tuul
RIVERSIDE’S HISTORY:
The company was established in 2003
and is based on the Estonian capital.
Last year 25 persons worked in the
company. In addition to regular general
construction works also the services
of construction management and
design are provided to its clients.
Among other things, it is also interesting
that the permit for the conservation
and restoration of architectural
monuments has been issued by the
Heritage Protection Board to the company.
Also, Riverside carries out the
research works through different architectural
monuments.
All started from the fact that there was no serious
construction company in Pala rural municipality
which would fulfil the major orders. “As at
that moment the money of the state and the European
Union was directed thereto, the thought
came from there. This is actually the outskirts
and Pala area was like in the role of orphan for
a long time. We had the idea to operate in this
area quietly and provide the competitive construction
service to the local people. Then, for
the best or for the worst, the slightly larger organisations
incurred the competition with which
was already difficult and then we started to look
for the way to Tallinn. Finally we moved to Tallinn
and here really everything grows and develops
constantly,” Põld explains the background.
Põld is the man who, if needed, also takes the
trowel into hand, piles up the wall and carries
the heavy blocks at the construction site. In any
case – one thing is clear that the managers of
the company are not afraid of the work or major
challenges: slightly after when it clarified that
the construction market in Estonia falls, the
company decided to expand to Ukraine. “Currently
I do not deal directly with management in
Estonia, as the expansion to the Ukrainian market
is quite labour intensive. The representation
has been established there and the first works
are under process. In July this year we started
with works there. The objects to be built there
are currently still a secret – when completed,
we talk about it,” Põld says modestly.
The choice was made for the benefit of Ukraine
due to the fact that this country has not yet
reached so high in its development than the
vicinity of Russia and its major cities. Riverside
has understood that the construction boom in
Ukraine just started and there are relatively few
companies with good structure and experience.
Ukraine has surely major companies, but these
are not so flexible.
As no construction orders come from the private
sector, Riverside keeps itself in process
such as many other Estonian construction companies
with the public procurements at the local
market. They participate actively where possible
and the statistics indicates that in average
of 10% of the tenders are won. Põld tells that
the market is adjusting - small Estonia has very
many construction companies established during
the boom which have no work and now
these companies with 2-6 men disappear with
high probability. “Our problem is that when
there were good times, then every employee
having been a specialist for a couple of years,
decided to establish own company and thus very
many valued and good people were lost and
several nothing-telling companies were received
without correct administration and management
of the company. The Estonian is also
very tough, even if it can be seen that the situation
is bad and there is no sense in continuation,
he still continues. We have lost the tenders to
relatively unknown companies and if their annual
report is reviewed there is nothing, a long
column of tax debts can be seen and just the
moment before making the tender everything
will be arranged. I do not know how they are
able to fulfil the order and the quality is questionable,”
Põld thinks. There is one more thing
that disturbs the company’s manager. Namely
that the documentation of the procurements
has been poorly prepared. “I do not know
whether people could not deal with this documentation
or why is this like that, but the requirements
are thus absurd.“
The year 2006 was an excellent year for the
company and then the problem of training the
personnel arose. Thus it was decided not to expand
in 2007, but to contribute to one’s employees,
this in its turn naturally decreased the
sales and results. In 2008 Riverside had the next
year of rise, but as Põld says – maybe at the
wrong time, as the market started to fall. Anyway,
several big and small projects were completed
in 2008.
“The office tower, i.e. Audi house was built in
2008 by the centre of Rocca al Mare – this was
our major contract last year which also reached
the year 2009, as my aim was the expansion towards
Ukraine. One object should be immediately
completed in Konguta – renovation of one
kindergarten and school, one shed-drier is in
progress which is under heritage protection and
therefore the construction works require high
skills. One object is also in Võru City Government
which will be completed in March 2010
and many small objects are also in Tallinn,”
Põld views the long list of works.
To sum up Põld says that the men will always
remain children. When in the childhood the children
play with small blocks, then now the
blocks are slightly bigger. “Construction is actually
very interesting, you build something and
this will remain for the tens of years. It feels extraordinarily
good when something especially
interesting could be set up!“ •
RIVERSIDE OÜ 2008:
Sales (th EEK) 131,003
Change in sales 506.7 %
Net profit (th EEK) 11,081
Change in net profit 100 %
Number of employees 25
Investments (th EEK) 211
Return on equity 1385.1 %
42