The construction industry must find a solution together, or not at all! – here are the valuable messages from SZABADICS at the sector's summit meeting.

This year, Infotér Contech 2025 Conference SZABADICS Építőipari Zrt., whose experts set up a company stand and actively participated in several presentations and roundtable discussions this prominent event in the sector.

In addition, on the first day of the conference, 16 October, SZABADICS participated as the title sponsor of the wine tasting event. The informal evening event organised by Contech was attended by numerous construction industry professionals.

There is no correlation between the number of people entering and leaving the sector.

Among the main messages conveyed at the conference held at the Anna Hotel in Balatonfüred, Roland Szabadics highlighted the issue of training new recruits for our newspaper. „As was mentioned in an earlier presentation at the conference, every year, more people retire from the construction industry than the total number of students enrolled in adult and higher education programmes over a three-year period,” pointed out the company's chief operating officer.

Due to the above trend, a key task for SZABADICS is to reach out to graduating students. „We have a number of tools at our disposal, such as our dual training programme, which we developed in collaboration with several higher education institutions. However, what really made a big splash this year was our summer camp called Summer Bridge Camp 1.0.”

That's how much an informal conversation can be worth.

He emphasised that the three-day Szabadics Academy, which was covered in detail by our newspaper, participants gained insight into the company's operations, projects and professional background. He emphasised that informal discussions were also held over the weekend, where young people were able to express their needs. At the same time, the company also explained what it expects from a recent graduate.

In line with the above objectives, Roland Szabadics took part in a roundtable discussion held on Friday at the conference, which focused on career starts in the construction industry, i.e. the path of students and trainees in the construction industry. At this forum, Szabadics Roland also emphasised the importance of dual training:

„It is important for students to experience the market environment they will later enter. This is good for the students, good for the university, and later good for the company as well, since less energy needs to be invested in integrating young new employees.”

SZABADICS successfully changed strategy when the domestic market stalled

Another important topic of the conference was the entry of domestic construction companies into regional markets in neighbouring countries. The chairman of SZABADICS also participated in a roundtable discussion on this topic on Thursday. Tamás Kovács recalled that the Nagykanizsa-based company began its construction activities in Romania and Croatia in 2019. This move was preceded by the completion of KEHOP public utility development investments in 2016-2017: the transition between the two EU cycles caused a two-year slump in orders.

„At that point, we expanded both vertically and horizontally: we began to develop the group's building construction activities and entered external markets,” explained the chairman.

He revealed that, in preparation for foreign involvement, he had visited the Far East and other Asian countries with various business delegations: „We had to realise that we could not undertake construction work in more distant areas due to the relative immobility of our capacities. That is why we decided to look for opportunities in the Central European region.”.

This knowledge was invaluable when the company entered foreign markets.

The roundtable discussion also touched upon the competitive advantages that could be leveraged to gain ground abroad. Tamás Kovács, representing SZABADICS, emphasised that they had gained decades of experience in civil engineering projects financed by EU funds in the domestic environment. „We have a good understanding of the psychology and administration involved, which means we are competitive not only in terms of price, but also in the management of such projects,” said Tamás Kovács.

He added that they deliberately opened up to Europe only in the field of public utility construction because these developments have the same financing structure on the Croatian and Romanian markets as in Hungary.

In addition to management expertise, another competitive advantage is their financing capacity. „This is especially true in Romania, where there are many small companies that are effective as subcontractors but are unable to finance their work.” He also pointed out that another important factor is that they convey the corporate culture, which is based on the family values of SZABADICS Group, to their Croatian and Romanian colleagues. „One element of this is quality work, and another is keeping one's word. If we continuously convey these values, we will create an environment around us that lays the foundation for success.”

Cooperation in the field of BIM is of fundamental importance.

Similar to last year's Infotér Contech 2025 conference, the event in Balatonfüred also focused on digitalisation and BIM in the civil engineering sector. During the roundtable discussion on the topic, Csaba Boda, member of the board of directors at SZABADICS Group, pointed out that the mandatory application of BIM in the water utility sector will take place years later than in other areas, and the exact date is still uncertain.

At the same time, SZABADICS Építőipari Zrt. already created its BIM strategy in 2023 and is gathering experience and analysing results through pilot projects. „One of our stated goals is to be able to form an opinion based on the methods tested in the projects when legislators involve the industry in the development of the BIM regulatory framework for civil engineering,” revealed Csaba Boda.

At the roundtable discussion, there was unanimous agreement that it is in the fundamental interest of everyone in the domestic construction industry for all companies to play from the same sheet of music when using the BIM application. It was also mentioned that there is no need to transfer know-how to each other during cooperation, but it must be clarified what input and output data is expected from each other in the BIM value chain.

For its own sake, or with sectoral interests in mind?

In connection with the above line of thought, Csaba Boda emphasised that he heard essentially the same message from everyone at the conference, just with different terminology. „Some referred to this cooperation as the BIM ecosystem, while others drew attention to the importance of data. We are also researching the same thing. The question is, are we doing what we do for its own sake, or are we also keeping sectoral interests in mind?”

In summary, he said that the most important thing for them now is to find partners – whether in advocacy, education or among operators – with whom they can agree on requirements. „Together with them, we are looking for a way to make the initial data of this particular data flow or value chain visible from the outset. Furthermore, it should be clarified who will use what at the end of the process: at present, no one can see what the specific purpose of the BIM application is in the water utility sector.”

To conclude our report, Tamás Kovács, president of SZABADICS Építőipari Zrt., summarised the benefits of the conference for our newspaper in general terms.

„Relationships between managers of domestic construction companies are fundamentally good, and events like this help to strengthen them. The challenges, whether in terms of digitalisation or labour supply, are the same for everyone – and solutions can only be found either by the sector working together or not at all.”