Milan, July 21, 2021 – Webuild has launched the supply chain of the construction sector programme the “Supplier Development Hub” during a Webinar entitled “Innovation and Sustainability: The Evolution of the Construction Sector” in which more than 2,700 current and potential suppliers for the Group took part.

The Hub is a new initiative introduced by the Group to promote innovation and sustainability among suppliers and support them in embracing these two conditions that are essential to better compete on international markets and seize opportunities in the domestic market.

“We are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and we are ready to seize the opportunities that the sector is offering us in Italy and global markets as infrastructure becomes a means of recovery. We are ready and willing to do it with all the businesses that make up the supply chain. The Supplier Development Hub represents Webuild’s desire to create a cohesive system with the supply chain’s businesses so we can grow together. We are talking about more than 15,000 businesses that have worked with us in the last two years. Many of the results that have been achieved and the challenging projects that have been completed were achieved also thanks to our supply chain, this enormous productive capability that made it possible to undertake iconic projects like the new Panama Canal and the Naples-Bari high-speed railway, and that will allow us to build projects like the high-speed railway in Texas. It is the dream of this company, Webuild, to bring together all of these examples of excellence to meet the challenge to become more competitive and offer better projects in terms of price, quality and sustainability.

We have to grow together according to the parameters set of social and environment sustainability. Today, sustainability is not a trend, it is an operating requirement and a request that is being made by the market and investors - in addition to a model in which we believe to deliver a better planet for future generations. If we want to be on the market, we have to be sustainable, along with the entire supply chain. We are ready to invest and to collaborate with everyone who has new ideas to be developed and applied so that together we can improve the parameters for safety and environmental performance on our construction sites. There is no future without innovation or sustainability,” said Pietro Salini, Chief Executive of Webuild, during the webinar.

The Supplier Development Hub programme will have an open content factory to encourage the development of new ideas and collaborative projects in various areas, involving suppliers across sectors in order to help the sector to grow. It will also have a webinar system entitled “Infrastructure Talk” to share knowledge and experience in the sector between Webuild and suppliers; a web site to gather statistics and interactive content to share know-how; and a platform called “Open-es” to help suppliers grow in a more sustainable way, born from a partnership with international companies and leaders in sustainability.

On the “Supplier Hub” website all the events and shared content can be found regarding opportunities for the supply base in current projects, and an area dedicated to collaboration that will be progressively supplied with tools developed with and for suppliers. They include the new Smartbox, a system to monitor activities on a construction site based on digital technology to support management processes in all the phases of a project - from the start-up of the site to the project’s closing to guarantee safety standards for workers, increase efficiency in site management and the maintenance of machinery and vehicles, capitalising on the know-how generated to better monitor vehicles.

The platform represents a starting point for further development and collaboration in the future in which Webuild’s entire supply chain must participate to develop new ideas and products together. With the Supplier Development Hub programme, Webuild aims to create an open dialogue with suppliers that already work with the Group and with those in adjacent sectors to encourage growth by means of reciprocal contamination and a greater sharing of technologies and known-how to be developed and appled together on infrastructure projects being developed by the Group. There are nearly 7,000 businesses that are involved with Webuild on 18 main projects in Italy with contracts worth a combined €7.5 billion.