Continued growth for AINS Group in a disrupted market

Despite a tough market in 2023, the Finnish construction engineering and consulting company AINS Group continued on a growth path. Turnover grew to EUR 130 million, an increase of 10% on the previous year. Overall, 7% of the growth was obtained through corporate acquisitions, and 3% came through organic growth.

“As a specialist offering a broad range of services, we have many pillars, and despite the difficult market situation, our year-end order book exceeded the previous year’s. Construction management have performed very well in terms of client projects and procurement, and the situation has remained quite good in infrastructure and building services engineering as well. The area most affected last year by the slowdown in private housing construction was structural engineering, along with architectural design towards the end of the year,” says AINS Group CEO Kari Kauniskangas.

In a trying market, the relative profitability of the company deteriorated. EBITDA totalled 5.0 million euros, and the operating margin was 3.9%.

“We’re not satisfied with the result. The drop in profitability is due to the development needs of a growing organisation, and to the interruption of customer projects due to the market situation, which resulted in idle time. We introduced a new group-wide ERP system last year, which required us to spend many more hours than expected on training and on solving problems with the system and its performance. Our staff deserve the greatest thanks for the year,” Kauniskangas says.

During 2023, four of AINS Group’s six divisions and most of its 1,300 employees migrated to the new UNIT4 system. The common platform enables centralised financial management, transparent reporting and more advanced operations management.

The lessening demand for housing design and unexpected interruptions of projects were countered during the year by targeted staff layoffs and permanent cost reductions in the cost structure.

Focus on productivity, environmental sustainability and the customer experience

In 2023, the main developments in AINS Group’s operations were the launch of a sixth division focused on renovation, the completion of the integration of the acquired companies, and the development of the joint supply of services. The group grew during the year through the acquisition of the architecture firm Konkret, the renovation engineering specialist Frontago, the structural engineering company J. Sund and the architectural firm B&M.

Supported by the private equity investor Vaaka Partners, in autumn 2023 AINS Group updated and extended its strategy to 2027. The aim is to continue to grow, but to move forward with profitability as a priority while maintaining and further improving the group’s excellent customer experience. AINS Group’s development is guided by three priorities: productivity, environmental sustainability, and customer experience.

“Through data-driven digital development, we increase not only our own productivity but also our ability to improve project productivity for the benefit of our clients. Combining project management and design, our versatile teams have a lot to offer in this regard. The earlier in the project we are involved with our different skills areas, the more economic and ecological added value we can produce,” Kauniskangas says.

Today AINS Group also published its sustainability report for 2023 (in Finnish). The group is the only consultancy company in Finland to measure its experts’ positive environmental impact – the environmental handprint – which is generated by solutions that reduce the client’s climate footprint, among other things.

“Increasing our environmental handprint as part of our core mission is one of our key strategic objectives. The proactive use of environmental expertise in other services as well as those related to sustainability will become more and more important as part of the customer experience we offer,” Kauniskangas says.

AINS Group will continue to consolidate its corporate structure after the end of the financial year in 2024. From the beginning of April 2024, AINS Group’s services, from structural and building systems to infrastructure, will be offered by a single company, A-Insinöörit Suunnittelu Oy. 

Further information:
Kari Kauniskangas, CEO, AINS Group
Contact requests via the Communications 
Silja Sarkamo, tel. +358 50 379 4767, silja.sarkamo@ains.fi