As CEO of Site Facility, Jacob HeskjÊr is in charge of a bold vision that sees the company rolling-out camp facility solutions worldwide. And if that means finding a nearby site – complete with water and power – in the Arctic Circle, so be it.
PES: It’s good to see Site Facility in the magazine once again. How has business been since your last appearance?
Jacob HeskjÊr: The business is really beginning to evolve in the right direction and more and more people are becoming aware of the benefits of our concept.
PES: How has your offering evolved since it was launched in 2008?
JH: The business area has expanded so that today, besides just accommodation, we also take care of the facilities on site. So we can now supply camp, office facilities, cleaning, canteen, locker rooms and meals on-site – for special projects in areas such as buildings to house retrofit and service tasks.
PES: We touched upon the financial advantages that companies benefit from by having workers on site – can you explain a little more about this??
JH: The most important is the reduced travel time, which means more hours on-site, rather than hours on the road. There is also great flexibility in relation to working hours – for example, if the weather suddenly turns bad – and this has the added benefit of keeping the hire of tools and cranes down to the bare minimum. It’s a more efficient way of working that saves money in the long-term.
With long-term projects, the price of accommodation is cheaper per person per day if you use the camp solution instead of traditional hotels. In addition, the camp is tailored exactly to your needs. So, for example, if you want special food or mealtimes that vary from day to day.
PES: Tell us about your involvement with the Skogsberget project in northern Sweden…
JH: We have taken care of accommodation and meals in the form of a camp for 120 people from the start of the Skogsberget project until now.
PES: Also, you recently said farewell to J‰draÂs – what was your involvement here and what challenges did you face?
JH: We handled the accommodation and meals for the entire site staff for 10 months. The challenges were mainly that the number of engineers on site during the project exceeded the number of rooms in the camp. This was solved by ensuring continuous accommodation on local facilities – and meals in camp on an equal footing with the residents.
PES: It’s worth exploring the aftermath of one of your projects – what happens to the site?
JH: We always leave the site as we inherited it. However, we often make improvements that benefit the local community, as we often make use of existing buildings and renovate them. For example, in J‰draÂs the sports club was renovated clubhouse and the kitchen was upgraded to cater for 50 people.
PES: Talking of challenges, your work in the Arctic Circle must have been particularly testing. How did you overcome the local conditions?
JH: When you live so far from anyone else, there are particular challenges in terms of getting connected to the water network and power. Our strength is that we are good at finding solutions so that the customer can get his camp as close as possible to the site.
PES: What feedback have you had from the workers on the ground about your facilities?
JH: There is usually a lag period where residents have to get used to the concept, as they are used to living under different conditions (for example, in hotels). But after this period, residents typically find out that there are also many advantages of living in their own camp. Among other things, greater proximity with colleagues and a more relaxed atmosphere than in hotels, which may be, for example, the dress code at the restaurant.
Moreover, there is often a greater focus on the project itself, because you do not have to worry about anything other than work. We take care of the rest. Most of the residents want the job done as quickly as possible and to get back home. The camp solution can help with this because of its location near the site and there is more focus on the work in a camp.
This means the rapid completion of the project, which is in everyone’s interest.
PES: What’s next for the Site Facility portfolio? Expansion into other geographic areas or perhaps different markets???
JH: Site Facility’s vision is Camp Anywhere – so we are looking at the entire world. Currently we are working in Uruguay, Turkey, Norway and Sweden, while we are also taking steps towards working for the mining industry in Chile and major construction projects around the world (including Africa).
PES: How much of a concern is on-site security for your customers? How do you meet these concerns?
JH: We are starting to appreciate that security means more and more to our customers, as many of the projects eventually move to countries where there is a need for additional security for the residents. This we deal with on a case by case basis and in cooperation with the customer.
PES: Finally, what are your thoughts about the coming 12 months? Is 2015 looking as positive for you as 2014?
JH: We have a strong growth plan and an exciting pipeline, and 2015 for us should be as positive as 2014 has been.
Farewell to J‰draÂs
After having laid grounds to a 50-person camp for 10 months, the area around J‰draÂs AIK’s clubhouse is back to its old self.
Site Facility, which for ten months has rented the area, has packed up the camp and left the scenic area so that it looks the way it did before the camp was established.
“The greatest change for the local community is probably that clubhouse of the local sports club has been renovated for about 700,000 kroner, with a modern and fully equipped fitness centre and a refurbished canteen and kitchen with brand new industrial appliances designed to cater for groups of up to 50 people,” says CEO of Site Facility Jacob HeskjÊr, who during the project also was pleased to be able to employ eight people from the local community to look after the residents of the camp with with services such as cooking and cleaning.
Seven became ten
The original plan was that Camp Site Facility J‰draÂs was to be taken down already at the end of 2012 . But the project, in which Vestas NEU erected 66 V112 3MW turbines, was extended. And Vestas suddenly needed accommodation for a further three months. While at the same time increasing the size of the crew quite considerably.
“It is always a pleasure for us to be able to provide our clients with this kind of flexibility when things don’t go to plan. Fortunately we had no problems extending, and we also managed to solve the challenges of feeding and housing the extra engineers,” says Jakob HeskjÊr.
And the engineers? They have been very happy in the camp: “It almost feels like my second home. Us who live in the camp almost become like family. It’s nice when you live so close together for such a long time – and far away from your own family. When you are on site it also makes a difference that you truly know the people you are working with,” said Katharina Hagberg, service engineer from Total Wind, who stayed in the camp.
The camp included a cinema, fitness centre, restaurant, games room, laundry facilities, offices and, of course, residential quarters on par with a three star hotel.
