| CASE STUDY >
New age panelstory
Written by: Monika Mudranincová
Photo by: Petr Poliak
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Jaroslav
Kalenda |
During its existence, Canaba has
built over a thousand prefabricated, customized houses. As well
as receiving many prestigious awards, the firm has become one of
the market's most significant players.
THE CURRENT success of the Canaba development company was in fact
spurred on by the collapse of Presta, a pre-cast concrete company
in Česká Lípa. Civil engineer Jaroslav Kalenda, an expert in land
development for many years, had tried to save the production program
of the stagnated Presta by pushing the company towards manufacturing
prefabricated, customized houses (so-called "concrete sandwiches")
with the help of modern Swedish technology. But when Presta declared
bankruptcy in 1991, Kalenda decided to establish a development company
along with several partners, and began doing business on his own.
The initial stages were not easy - for almost six years the firm
was unable to overcome the Czech aversion to concrete panels as
construction material, as they are a symbol of "panelák"
housing projects such as Jižní město in Prague. First, Canaba focused
its attention on Germany, where customers understood that the quality
of the new panels was different than during the period of socialism.
During those several years in Germany, the firm participated in
the realization of over 300 buildings, yet because of fierce competition
and the strengthening crown, it was forced to withdraw from the
market.
Business minus money
Kalenda and other shareholders had a clear and courageous vision
- to succeed in the Czech Republic building customized houses. But
there were two snags: first, they had no capital, and second, they
had no experience with business of this kind. "I see the basis
of our success in the fact that we jumped right into it even though
we didn't understand much," insists Kalenda, chairman of the
company's board of directors. "Those who understood it were
apprehensive, so the market was open to us, though in the beginning
we had zero capital. We just bet on the fact that everybody desires
their own house and garden so that they can make decisions about
their property themselves," he explains.
| Canaba
- a Latin expression for a group of houses, built
either near the Roman legion encampments or in the
suburbs of ancient Roman towns, settled by artisans
and merchants, and that later evolved into towns. |
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This hypothesis has since been proven. The demand for individual
housing was so strong that clients fully paid for the entire development
in advance, enabling Canaba and similar development firms to do
business without loans. This method of financing, which is completely
non-existent in the west, was common in the Czech Republic in the
nineties - until 1997, when development company H-Systém declared
bankruptcy and over a thousand affected clients lost a total of
CZK 1.3 billion, tunneled by the former managers of the firm. Kalenda
acknowledges that the H-Systém case shook public trust in the seriousness
of advanced financing, and notes that although their own approach
was based on honesty, Canaba no longer uses this method.
Since that time, the company has built 1,084 family houses, or around
150 of them every year (165 last year, with 182 family houses expected
for this year). The company offers six basic types, which range
between CZK 2-6 million. Ninety percent of the clients have their
own lots, but Canaba also builds on its own land, so-called satellite
villages or apartment houses. One example of such developments is
in Nupaky near Prague. "The interest in family houses and apartment
houses is huge," says Kalenda with delight. "Without too
much advertising, the demand almost exceeded our production capacities.
The apartments in Nupaky were sold before the shovels even hit the
ground."
| Economical
living
The entire structure is built from large, modern
components, so construction is quick and inexpensive.
The well thought-out structure of sandwich walls ensures
excellent thermal insulation and accumulation, which
means savings in heating Canaba houses that is far
from negligible. The basic houses have a washed-out
facade made from crushed lime, which does not require
any maintenance or repair. The production is ecological
and in accordance with strict European standards. |
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The secret of success
Canaba uses the modern technique of prefabricated parts, improving
it continuously. Since construction is carried out by well-trained
specialists, the risk of error is minimal. This type of quality
control is evidenced by the minimal amount of client complaints.
In addition, house made-to-order can be built within a couple months.
Potential customers are also often attracted by the price, which,
for the simplest house, compares to the price of an average-size
Prague apartment. However, this type of development also has its
disadvantages, which are especially emphasized by architects - the
houses are more or less uniform and the variability of the design
is limited to a large degree. But it seems the general public is
more pragmatic than architects. Most visitors to the model houses
are surprised by the practical character of the internal layout,
which evokes a feeling of spaciousness even in a relatively small
house. Readers of Můj dům magazine chose the Classic type as "House
of 1995" and the Variable type as "House of 97/98".
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Benchmark
- narrow specialization on customizing solid prefabricated
family houses with the help of top technologies
- emphasis on the quick speed of construction and low price
- growth achieved solely via firm's own capital (no bank loans)
- image of a successful firm supported by the "House of
the Year" award |
What doesn't kill us makes us
stronger
Each business goes through crises, from financial to personal. In
the case of Canaba, 1998 can be considered a turning point, as the
number of clients who could fully pay for the building of a home
in advance radically declined. This was made even worse by the recession
in the construction industry, high mortgage rates and poor availability
of loans. From 1997 to 1998, the company had to reduce the number
of its employees from 212 to 165, when sales declined from CZK 271
million to CZK 237 million per year. Economic director Šárka Miškovská
characterizes the situation as a crisis situation indeed, but not
insurmountable: "At that time, the banks did not want to loan
us money, so we had to cope with our insufficient finances by strictly
economizing," she says. "However, today we perceive that
crisis as a positive, something we were able to learn from."
The firm, which was originally headquartered in Děčín, moved its
offices to Prague in 1999. It now has representative offices in
eight Czech towns and, since 2000, in Slovakia as well. The number
of employees has stabilized at 418. In 2001, sales of the Canaba
group reached CZK 476 million, and profit for the last five years
has hovered around 0.5-1% of the annual turnover. The firm has property
worth several hundred million crowns, consisting of a factory, a
fleet of machinery, its own headquarters and the model houses. It
has practically no competition in this country in the area of solid,
prefabricated houses.
Majority shareholder Kalenda, who turns fifty this year, has a rosy
outlook for the future. "In two or three years, we want to
become a relatively large company with a growth of annual sales
from half a billion this year to one billion, and engage ourselves
more in the building of apartments," he says, adding "we
know that we have the potential for this."
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