PREFA ONV has significantly expanded its product range and is not afraid to take on atypical orders

Over the past year, the subsidiary PrefaONV has undergone significant modernization. It has increased its production capacity and expanded its product range. But that’s not all. It has further plans for the future, such as focusing on the sale of 3D-printed concrete parts. “We can already make almost anything out of concrete, including custom products,” says Ilja Nikolov, director of Prefa in Ostrožská Nová Ves, in an interview, revealing where PrefaONV should go next.

What exactly did the modernization of PrefaONV involve?

Two-thirds of the production hall has a completely new floor, new roofing, and completely new electrical wiring, which is related to the connection of more modern and economical machines and equipment. The modernization has thus affected virtually the entire production process. Over the past forty years that Prefa has been in operation, it has been designed for smaller order volumes. When we became part of the PURPOSIA Group holding company, we were able to purchase modern molds and other technologies, such as molds for prestressed elements, which increased our production capacity approximately fourfold to the current 1,200 cubic meters per month. However, this is also closely related to the need to increase the number of employees. And not only in the production process, but also in implementation and sales.

As a result, you have also expanded your product range, is that correct?

The range has been expanded to include prestressed elements, which our precast plant did not previously manufacture. This completes our product range almost 100%. At present, we are able to manufacture almost anything from concrete, including custom-made products. We can design, manufacture, and assemble complete reinforced concrete structures not only for industrial buildings, but also for virtually anything that is built using reinforced concrete prefabrication technology. We have also purchased a new stirrup bender, which will speed up the production of reinforcement cages for precast elements. By increasing the volume of bent reinforcement production, we can now also offer the production and supply of bent reinforcement for monolithic structures built directly on construction sites. We also plan to start producing and selling concrete Lego blocks on a larger scale, which we currently only produce for our own use.

Are you able to recruit qualified employees? Who are you looking for most?

There are some professions that we are constantly looking for – typically tensioners, machine mechanics, and other production workers, but also preparers and site managers. However, filling some positions has been a long-term problem. We are experiencing greater turnover because, let’s say, blue-collar professions have not been attractive in recent years, and companies are poaching quality workers, fitters, and craftsmen. However, we offer stability and the backing of a company in a holding structure, where our employees have the security of good jobs. At the moment, we are one of the most important suppliers of prefabricated reinforced concrete structures for our sister company HSF System, both in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, so there are orders, even though the construction market in the industrial and civil construction segment has cooled down somewhat in the last year.

That’s true, large logistics halls are no longer being built as they were in previous years. Where is your largest market now? 

There are significantly fewer large projects, but we are also interested in smaller contracts such as retail parks, sports halls, and the like. We don’t need to produce a thousand cubic meters every month. We are perfectly happy with the smaller segment of the market, where we have no problem producing very specific elements or atypical shapes that large prefabricated companies don’t want to do because it is unprofitable and production-intensive for them. This is also the case for us, but we don’t want to shy away from such challenges.

Do you supply and assemble structures according to the documentation provided, or do you design your own solutions for your customers’ projects?

We usually manufacture and assemble structures according to the project documentation provided, on the basis of which we prepare our own production documentation, where we draw individual elements as they will look in production so that our people can manufacture them accurately. However, if the investor so wishes, we are able to prepare the order from the initial design to its actual implementation. Such a solution is, of course, more cost-effective for the customer, because from the very beginning we are able to optimize the individual construction elements according to our molds, find the most suitable solution in terms of load-bearing capacity and also the final price.

Are you considering further expansion of production and offerings in the future?

At the moment, the space capacity of the existing hall does not allow us to do so. In the long term, we are of course considering it, but everything is related to the economic situation and space possibilities. In the future, we would like to build a smaller hall where we could place a 3D concrete printing machine from our sister company Coral Construction Technologies and print some concrete components directly at Prefa. We are currently involved in the construction of a church in Neratovice, whose tower will be made using 3D printing technology, so we are already gaining real experience with this technology. 3D printing would be more of a niche product range, and for now it is really a long-term prospect for where we could also direct our production and offerings in the future. It would be a completely new type of product range, offering the possibility of producing unconventional, for example, organic shapes of concrete elements.