(„Delovaya Nedelya (Business Week)“ newspaper, No.14 (436) dated 17 April 2006)

Building market of Petersburg is rather well developed, the strongest players are known, pricing has long been regulated, and the emergence of new companies causes a certain distrust among the consumers. However, all this concerns only construction of new housing; the sphere of repair services looks quite different: unpredictable and uncontrolled. And this is despite the immense prospects and inexhaustibility of this trend. „Delovaya Nedelya“ decided to discuss the situation in the market of repair and construction services with General Director of STROYTEC Company Aleksandr Ivanov.

— What is the current situation with repair companies in the market of Saint-Petersburg? Which of them are the main players?

— This is not a correct question; of course, our Company; and seriously speaking, there are no obvious leaders among the great number of companies in this sector at present. Mainly, those who want to make repairs are looking for acquaintances in this sphere or for those, who have already recently dealt with repairs, to receive recommendations.

— What are the main trends in the market of apartment repairs? What is fashionable now? What basic requirements are imposed by the customers?

— Trends or requirements are the same — to perform the jobs with high quality, at low cost and quickly.

— Is the fashion for the Belorussian and Moldovian repairs over?

— Repairs with involvement of workers from the former Soviet republics are, primarily, related with a lower cost; and the fashion of saving one’s budget will never pass. In most cases, the migrants are workers managed by the local engineering and technical personnel. This scheme is frequently used by small companies or when receiving a big order, for there is no sense of increasing the personnel for one project, not knowing afterwards, what should be done with it.

— You are also dealing with anti-vandal materials. To what extent are they currently in demand in the market? Who is the main consumer of such products?

— As for anti-vandal materials: the main consumers of these products are different institutions, HOA, office and shopping centres, in general, all the premises with a high passability or with a necessity to protect their cosiness from hooligans. As regards those who do not use such technologies while performing the repair or finishing work, this is only due to the lack of information. I am not taking into account the cost characteristics of jobs, since the technologies have long been checked, and most of the materials have domestic equivalents.

— Is the role of designer’s component in apartment repairs significant now? Do the clients have the courage to experiment in designing?

— Many customers are now using the services of architectural bureaus or private designers. And the question of bravery is not posed here, since the result of such interaction is always higher than in case when the client formulated the task to the builders independently. This is only a question of additional investment of the funds. At present, the individuality is at its height, and this is very good. After all, the same job, for instance, pasting of wallpaper, can be performed in different ways, and, due to this, each time the appearance of the wall will change, and the cost of material will not change.

Conversation held by: Nikolai IVANOV

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Advertisøòï module in catalogue of members of exhibition „Medium and small business“, 10 february 2005, St. Petersburg, Russia.