Concrete is constantly evolving

The speaker is Filip Van Hautegem. He is a director at Willy Naessens Group and heads the Concrete division. 'Our division comprises 12 precast concrete plants in 10 companies,' Van Hautegem outlines. 'Most of these plants are monofactories: they produce one or at most two well-defined concrete elements. Our vault plants produce 950,000 m² of vaults a year. Other plants then focus on reinforced structures, prestressed beams, vaults, lift and stair shafts, and concrete roof elements.' 'This focus per plant on a well-defined type of concrete element results in in-depth and specialised expertise,' Van Hautegem explains. The fact that several factories still produce walls, for example, has everything to do with location. 'Concrete is heavy and, with factories spread across the country, we are always near a site. But at the same time, with large construction sites, we can fall back on standardisation within the group and thus be flexible with our production capacity. That is one of the advantages of vertical integration within the Willy Naessens Group.'

Apart from all the integration, the group's concrete division has more production capacity than needed for its own projects. This surplus is met by Megaton/Structo Prefab Systems, which supplies precast elements to third parties. 'We have a team in Ninove and recently also in Luxembourg to serve the market there, and that in France,' explains Director Megaton/Structo Prefab Systems Joris Vuerstaek. 'We can supply individual elements, but we do have a preference for total projects. We do not do assembly, but position ourselves as a supplier with added value. In fact, we do all study and drawing work in-house.'

Thanks to a combination of organic growth and acquisitions, the group's concrete division grew to become the market leader in Belgium. 'In our home market we have reached our scale, further growth will focus on abroad to support our construction companies there with new acquisitions.' Besides scale, location and specialisation, innovation remains a crucial focus. Not an obvious match with a product like concrete, which does not immediately seem to lend itself to glitzy innovations. Yet it is essential to constantly reinvent yourself, especially against a background of rising raw material prices and increasing demand for more sustainable solutions, especially in terms of carbon footprint.