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For Vebo Beton & Staal, Lightyards didn’t begin with the production of precast elements, but well before that. Thanks to its long-standing partnership with BAM Wonen, the company is often involved as early as the preparatory phase. This provides an opportunity to critically review designs and, where necessary, refine them to make them smarter, more efficient, and more cost-effective.
“We’re often involved right from the preliminary phase. That gives us the opportunity to make adjustments in ways we believe will improve the outcome—faster and often more cost-effectively as well,” says Gert van Drie, concrete division manager. For Lightyards in Eindhoven, Vebo supplied 82 precast staircases, 48 balcony slabs, and 243 precast walls—totaling 1,655 metric tons of precast concrete, delivered in 75 shipments.
According to van Drie, the success of a partnership doesn’t depend solely on price or capacity. Reliability and keeping one’s word are just as important. That trust grows through years of working together on projects: “A project manager recently told me, word for word: ‘I’m choosing you guys without even knowing what it’ll cost. I don’t want any hassle, and I know what I’m getting.’ Those are, of course, nice words, but that kind of trust can only be built up together over many years.”
That openness is also reflected in the way the company takes on projects. For Lightyards, a conscious decision was made not to produce all the prefabricated components in-house. The facade elements were supplied by another manufacturer, while Vebo focused on the components where the company could offer the greatest added value: “You have to be honest about what you can manage well. Wanting to do everything sounds appealing, but in the end, that doesn’t help the client.”
Inner-city projects place ever-increasing demands on logistics and execution. Available space is limited, and skilled workers are in short supply. According to van Drie, this makes prefabrication the logical construction method today more than ever: “On inner-city projects, there’s hardly any space, and there are simply too few skilled workers available. That’s why contractors want as many complete prefabricated elements as possible that can be assembled immediately.” For Vebo, prefabrication is therefore not just about producing concrete, but above all about thinking things through in advance, making realistic choices, and honoring commitments. According to Van Drie, it is precisely this combination that makes the difference on complex projects like Lightyards.
