The foundation for Arkil
With the eagerness to create close at heart, Civil Engineer Ove Arkil founded Arkil in 1941. Despite turbulent and difficult times, he managed to create a viable foundation for the company after the War, not least due to the building of air bases for the Danish military and by expanding the road network – first in Denmark and later on in Germany.
Some 60 years later, the company is now among the largest contractors in Denmark with approximately 1,700 employees and a revenue of DKK 2.2 billion in Denmark and abroad. The management and control of the company has been in the hands of the family for 3 generations, even though the company was listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange in 1978. Today, the power to bind the company is held by a professional Board of Directors applying corporate governance in accordance with the requirements for public listed companies.
The head and the heart in the right place
For Arkil, it all revolves around the client and the project. We know that the foundation of our work is created by the client’s wishes and needs. When meeting our employees, our clients need to feel that they are in the hands of people with both the head and heart at the right place – since these long-term relations and good cooperation with the clients is the key factor to success in the long run. Projects that are carried out in the spirit of good cooperation will become good projects an increase the possibility of a thriving spirit. The wheels are turning, the production is running smoothly, and practical solutions to even complicated professional and technical issues are a welcome part of the order of the day.
In other words, it is essential for Arkil to demonstrate responsibility for the work we carry out, the cooperation we enter into and the community, which we are a part of. This has been essential for the company’s core values for generations, and this will also be the approach to the challenges which we face in the future.
Core competences and interpersonal skills
Arkil disposes of an experienced staff of more than 1,700 persons in Denmark and abroad as well as extensive and up-to-date machinery with equipment such as belt excavators and lifting gear, ramming machines, drilling equipment, bulldozers, graders and other large construction equipment. Further, the company disposes of an extensive amount of smaller and middle-sized equipment for carrying out ordinary construction tasks as well as both small and large specialised tasks. Together with the company’s fleet of laying-out machines, a total of 16 asphalt plants in Denmark, Germany and Ireland is the foundation for the company’s production and laying out of asphalt. Furthermore, at a factory in Sweden, Arkil produces the market’s best so-called “sewer sock” for renovation of piping without digging, which is sold to partners and installation contractors in Europe.
Construction
Construction activities, which are carried out on the Danish and Northern German market, hold many decades of experience with carrying out all types of construction and infrastructure tasks, including comprehensive state motorway tasks, bridge-building tasks, cofferdams and underground structures, railway tasks, land development tasks, road and sewerage tasks, cable and supply tasks, etc. Arkil holds core competences within a wide range of disciplines in the construction area, including handling and processing of soil pollution within the field of environmental engineering activities, high voltage cables and electrical infrastructure and concrete constructions for many different purposes. Throughout the years, the project managers within this activity have gained a solid experience in managing complicated infrastructure projects, in which many professional disciplines need to work together, and we are among most experienced in the industry within expanded forms of cooperation, such as partnership and early procurement. Furthermore, cooperating with local and regional clients and owners for many years have resulted in today’s division structure, tailored to deliver construction and supply cables to the local and municipal demand as well. Within the construction area Arkil cooperates with larger and international players on standalone projects, where the size and complexity of the project justifies this.
Asphalt
The asphalt area, covering the Danish and Northern German market as well as a part of the Irish market, conducts asphalting tasks for all types of road projects and offers a number of special products, e.g. covers with special requirements in respect of strength and constancy as well as noise-reducing wearing course (SRS), which will limit the noise pollution from traffic. Asphalt production and asphalting has been ISO certified, just as production and laying-out has been certified according to international standards as regards the environment and the working environment. In recent years, comprehensive invstments have been made in technology to use recyclable asphalt with a view to achieving environmental savings. Furthermore, Arkil participates in development work to contribute to improving asphalt surfaces and reduce the environmental impact from the production. On several occasions, Arkil Asphalt has participated in large projects in Denmark and abroad, and have gained experience with asphalt surfaces in difficult environments, including Thule Air Base in north-western Greenland.
Road Servicing
Within Road Servicing, Arkil is one of the leading operators on the market for state and municipal road tasks, including maintenance of a large part of the Danish motorway network as well as contracts with local governments. The activities cover many different services, including lawn mowing, maintenance of bridges, cleaning of areas and picnic areas, exchanging of crash barriers and road signs, maintenance of green spaces and parks, etc. These tasks require a special cooperation between the public orderer and the private supplier, with a large knowledge of the client’s road network and the condition of the road network. Development has shown that outsourcing of the local tasks within the road sector will mean savings and streamlining for the municipalities, but this is influenced by political views and ideologies blurring the picture. In Road Servicing, we have gained good experience with taking over public parks and road activities, ensuring a smooth transition to the private sector for the employees while taking the client's needs into consideration.
Foundations
Foundations activities cover a wide range of specialities throughout Denmark and to some extent in Northern Germany. Arkil Foundations is one the well-established operators on the market, and the main activities are ramming of reinforced concrete piles, sheet piles and mini piles, driving of sheet pile walls, establishing of permadisplacement piles, drilled foundations as well as post-foundation tasks. The tasks are mainly carried out for external clients, but more and more frequently this activity is included in the Group’s other core competencies in large projects, and, thus, helps to ensure the Group an increasing own production and better control of the overall process in this type of projects.
Piping
In the Piping Segment, one of the best specialised products on the market for renovation without digging is produced at a factory in the northern part of Sweden. Installation is carried out by partners throughout Europe, but Arkil has their own installation activity in Germany in the form of Arkil Inpipe GmbH. This concerns a so-called “sewer sock” manufactured of armoured glass fibre that uses light in the hardening process, which is an environmental-saving technology. The product has an especially high E-module, which gives a large structural strength even at thin material thickness. Apart from renovation of sewers, this product is especially suited for securing and renovation of subways of larger dimensions beneath e.g. roads and railways, where the increased rainfall means increased risk of the foundations being washed away.
