Doka Group

Doka is one of the world’s leading international producers and suppliers of prefabricated formwork used in concrete pouring. It is branch of the Umdasch AG ( JSC) that is based in Amstetten, Austria. The Doka Group has a worldwide workforce of approx. 5000, with over 100 branches in more than 60 countries.

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Company

The Doka Group and the Umdasch Shopfitting Group make up the Umdasch AG with it’s headquarters in Amstetten, Austria. In 1868 the company was founded as a carpenterentry and sawmill. Over time, it evolved and added metal manufacturing and specialized in two areas. The combined company employs roughly 6100 people and the combined revenues reached 891 million Euros in 2006. 85% of the company’s produces is export.[1]

The 'Umdasch Shopfitting Group' is specialized in store design and interior architecture and the production of related furnishing equipment. The consolidated revenues of the shop fitting company group reached 168 million Euro in 2005.

The 'Doka Group' is specialized in concrete formwork and engineering solutions. Consolidated revenues totaled 690 million Euros in 2006.

History

The company founding and company name are interlinked with their first product and projects. In Austria, in the 1950’s large infrastructural construction was underway including several hydro electrical dams. The dams where being built on the Danube (Donau) and it’s tributaries by the Austrian utility "Donaukraftwerke". The word Kraftwerke translates to Power Stations which was abbreviated whith the river name into DOKW. Because of the great size of these structures, traditional timber beam formwork was too labor intensive to form the large walls. Thus a large scale systematic and reusable formwork was developed, with the wooden formwork panels being produced and shipped from the Amstetten company. Originally the DOKW was the delivery address, but then became the product name and finally, after replacing the W, it became the name of the newly founded company Doka in 1958.

In 1961 the first, of more than current 60 subsidiary, was established in Germany, followed in 1977 by Brazil and Kuwait. Since then Doka has grown to service countries in all continents (except Antarctica), particularly in Europe and the Middle East, and in the English speaking countries Great Britain, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the United States. [2]

Product & service overview

Doka is one of the most innovative companies in the sector. Their major advances are their systematic timber beam wall formwork and slab formwork developed in 1965, in 1971 they developed their first climbing formwork and in 1985 their modular steel wall formwork. Their formwork product systems and design service include slab, wall, one-sided wall, climbing, tunnel, dam, bridge formwork (cast-in-place balanced cantilever bridge, concrete arch bridge and steel combination bridge formwork) and shoring / falsework. Doka’s business is based on a combination of production, equipment sale & rental, engineering and maintenance.

Every year, an estimated 3.5 million m² (37 million sqft.) of Doka’s original product formwork panels is produced in various shapes and sizes. More than 10 million linear meters, 33 million linear ft (about the distance between San Francisco and Rio de Janeiro) of formwork beams and 75,000 metric tons of metal products are dispatched from the production plants. Most of the formwork production takes place at the Group’s central plant in Amstetten. The formwork panels are made in the branch plant in Banská Bystrica in Slovakia.

Projects

Projects built using Doka Formwork

• Burj Dubai, United Arab Emirates – the core of the world’s tallest building
• Burj al Arab, United Arab Emirates – one of the most and expensive hotels in the world, in Dubai
• Sutong Chang Jiang Highway Bridge, China

• Bridgewater Place, United Kingdom
• Tour CBX, France
• BMW Welt, Germany
• Vienna Skylink, Vienna Airport, Austria – enlargement of Vienna’s international airport
• Millennium Tower, Vienna, Austria
• T-Center, Austria
• Kista Science Tower, Sweden