Roads for people - Poldim
POLDIM S.A. is a company known in Poland and abroad owing to maintaining the highest standards of road and bridge construction works, which are always finished on schedule. POLDIM is also noted for its road maintenance services and production of materials for the road building industry.
Written by Aleksandra Strojek
Protoplast and first structural changes
POLDIM carries on more than fifty-years of operations among Polish road and bridge building enterprises. What is more, it considers itself to be the heir to the rich tradition of road and bridge building in the Lesser Poland region as well as in former Galicia. The beginnings of the company date back to 1952. At the time, as a result of an Act passed by the Presidium of the Government, the Regional Office for the Maintenance of Public Roads (REDP – Rejon Eksploatacji Dróg Publicznych) was established in Tarnów, in the southern part of Poland. 1968 witnessed a structural change of the company – the first Polish Asphalt Emulsions Plant was built within REDP. Yet, the company did not function for a long time. In 1975, due to a new administrative division of the country, REDP is closed down and replaced by The Regional Office for Public Roads in Tarnów (RDP – Rejon Dróg Publicznych). In 1992 RDP was divided into two separate entities: The Road Administration of the General Directorate of Public Roads in Kraków (Zarząd Dróg Generalnej Dyrekcji Dróg Publicznych), and the Road and Bridge Building Company in Tarnów (PBDiM - Przedsiębiorstwo Budowy Dróg i Mostów). The Tarnów divison of the company became very active on both local as well as domestic market. Between 1994 – 1998, PBDiM built a beltway south of Tarnów and just two years later, in 1996, it began a series of road works all around Poland.
Private capital and establishment of POLDIM
Further structural and legal changes took place in 1999. In accordance with the directive issued by the Voivode of Lesser Poland, PBDiM was privatized and took on the name of the Road and Bridge Building Company, Joint-Stock Company (PBDiM S.A.). In 2005, PBDiM S.A. changed its name to Polish Roads and Bridges, Joint-Stock Company in Tarnów (Polskie Drogi i Mosty Spółka Akcyjna). Last but not least, in February 2006, during an Extraordinary Board of Stockholders Meeting, the name of the company was changed to the current one, i.e. POLDIM, Joint-Stock Company (POLDIM S.A.). The three most crucial moments in the history of our company were the privatization process, changing the enterprise’s name to POLDIM S.A .and sales of majority block of shares to a Lithuanian company Tiltra – says Mr. Wacław Makarski, the President of POLDIM. The third of the events finalized in December 2009. At the time the road and bridge construction holding Tiltra Group headquartered in Vilnius acquired 71,1% of the Tarnów company’s shares. Becoming a part of Tiltra Group, POLDIM still operates within its hitherto organizational structure, i.e. a holding of subsidiaries and associate companies. The daughter companies are located in Dębica, Jakubowice, Mielec, Mikołajowice, Kraków and Katowice. Associate enterprises are located in Łódź and Jakubowice. Due to high demand for POLDIM’s products as well as their well-known quality, new Container Asphalt Emulsions Plants (Wytwórnia Emulsji Asfaltowych) have been opened in a few regions of Poland (Bialystok, Kunice, Pabianice and Gdansk). Moreover, POLDIM won a prestigious contract for works on Zakopianka, a busy road connecting Kraków and Zakopane. The event led to the opening of the Kraków Road Works Branch (Oddział Robót Kraków) in Głogaczów, a town located between Kraków and Myślenice.
Honesty in the vision
The vision of the company is best described by the triad: done well – on time – with a warranty. – At our company, ethics based on the Decalogue has always been of great importance. We do our best to make business relations transparent. It refers not only to the customers, but also to the subcontractors and employees. We try to make our activity honest and reliable – emphasizes the President. The triad rules were in fact confirmed officially at the beginning of the 21st century. In 2002 POLDIM was issued an ISO 9001:2000 certificate referring to construction and repair works of roads and bridges, development, production and sale of asphalts, modified asphalts, asphalt emulsions as well as hot and cold mix asphalts. Furthermore, lots of effort is put into developing positive employer-employee relations. At the current moment, POLDIM’s personnel figure oscillates around 600, whereas the whole holding is a workplace for more than 1300 people. – We give our employees a chance to develop. We support them in gaining the required construction licenses and qualifications, finance postgraduate programs or diversified trainings. We have also a number of social funds – says Mr. Makarski. The company is aware that it functions among the local community, its people and their affairs. Due to that, it sponsors a lot of cultural, artistic and sports ventures. – We support and initiate local projects of various kind. The objective of one of such ventures, ran in 2008 and 2009, was to save roadside shrines in Lesser Poland. The idea was to keep our landscape filled not only with road machinery and rushing cars, but also with some signs of our past and identity – asserts the President. Other important projects and institutions recently sponsored by POLDIM include among others: Tarnów Jazz Contest Festival, Theatre Season Talia, 2nd Investment Forum, Unia Tarnów Speedway Team as well as Special Education and Childcare Center in Tarnów.
Products and services
The offer of POLDIM is broad and attractive. The company offers not only construction works, but also lab services as well as products for the construction industry, mainly for the road and bridge building sector. The basis of POLDIM’s operations have always been various services connected to road and bridge building as well as winter and summer road maintenance. The company is usually the customers’ main contractor but it can also conduct its works as a subcontractor or a consortium member. The services offered among winter maintenance include: clearing roads and pavements of snow; removing slippery layers of ice and snow from roads, pavements and underpasses; snow disposal as well as setting up snow-fences. The summer maintenance includes in turn: partial road repairs with the use of cold mix asphalt, hot mix asphalt, asphalt emulsions and grit; repairs of pavement edges, surface and kerbs; traffic safety equipment repairs (acoustic screens, road signs); repairs of road shoulders, ditches, drainage systems; grass cutting as well as cutting down trees, bushes and self-seeders. Next to that, the geo-technical, field and road labs of POLDIM are capable of conducting a number of lab tests as well as delivering material and technological consultancy to the clients. – Without doubt, the focus is on road and bridge building as well as the production of materials. Our asphalt emulsions, modified asphalts or cold mix asphalts belong to the best manufactures of this kind in Poland – informs Mr. Makarski. It is worth mentioning here that next to excellent references from the company’s customers, products manufactured by POLDIM possess all required quality certificates.
Certificates and other reasons for pride
During more than fifty years of business activity, the enterprise has managed to gain the opinion of a reliable company. The professionalism is a result of experience gained from multiple construction works and the excellence is reflected in a number of prestigious awards received from diverse institutions and organizations. The work of POLDIM was for example perceived by the editorial team of the Polish Roads Monthly (Miesięcznik Polskie Drogi) along with the Road and Bridge Research Institute (Instytut Badawczy Dróg i Mostów). The institutions honoured POLDIM with Polish Roads of 21st century award for implementing modern technologies and advancement to the manufacturing of modified asphalts. What is more, the company received the title and certificate of Reliable Company 2003 (Solidna Firma 2003) in a project run under the European Commission Agency auspices. Besides, POLDIM belongs to an elite club of Business Gazelles (Gazele Biznesu), which gathers the most rapidly developing companies. The distinction came from a Polish economic daily Puls Biznesu. In addition, in 2008 POLDIM received the Transparent Company Certificate (Przejrzysta Firma) from Dun and Bradstreet Poland, a Polish branch of one of the best-known rating agencies in the world. The enterprise was also nominated in a prestigious competition Modernisation of Year 2008 for the reconstruction of a bridge in one of its projects. One of the patrons of the competition was the Ministry of Infrastructure. In turn, the construction of Lubień bypass on Zakopianka aspires to the title of The construction of the year 2009. However, at POLDIM it is believed that the main reasons for pride are not the awards and distinctions, but the unremitting satisfaction of the customers. Furthermore, the Tarnów roadmen respect the Polish origin of the company, yet it does not block foreign cooperation. POLDIM sells its products to Slovakia, Germany and Hungary and stays in touch with a number of scientists and specialists form abroad.
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