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With 36 years of experience in the construction and civil engineering industries in Seychelles, Vijay Construction has reaped the benefits of the country’s hotel boom in the late 90s-early 2000s, and is now seeking a new challenge to diversify its portfolio Writer: Emily Jarvis • Project Manager: Stuart Parker stablished in 1979, Vijay Construction has grown from a small familyowned Company handling just two hotel projects, into a multi-disciplinary organisation offering in-house construction capabilities through a team of more than 50 trained professionals and close-to 1,500 skilled tradesmen. Chief Executive Officer, V.J Patel reminisces: “I started the Company as 90 percent shareholder, with my wife and brother taking a five percent share
each. To this day, I hold 80 percent shareholding and the rest is distributed among the longstanding senior members of staff and close family. “From the beginning, our clients showed confidence in the business and, given my background working as a civil engineer - and eventually a Company Director - for the famous Laxmanbhai Construction, Vijay Construction started with its best foot forward.” Despite the challenging reverse business climate in the early 1980s due to the political unrest in Seychelles,
Eden Bleu Hotel by night
Vijay Construction weathered the storm and emerged more motivated than ever before; leveraging the reliable local team gathered over this decade to take part in the construction boom which followed in the late 1990s. “In the past 10 years alone, business has grown beyond expectation; something that is hard to imagine for a Company that started with just two employees in the late 1970s. In the last financial year, we achieved a turnover of $50 million, thanks in
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