# Doka GmbH

Doka is an international producer and supplier of formwork and scaffolding used in all fields of the construction sector. It is a branch of the Umdasch Group AG (JSC) based in Amstetten, Austria. Doka has a worldwide workforce of ~9,000, with 180 branches in 58 countries. The consolidated revenues of the Umdasch Group AG amounted to 1,853 million euros in 2023.

## History

Doka, umdasch The Store Makers and Umdasch Group Ventures make up the Umdasch Group AG with its headquarters located in Amstetten, Austria. In 1868 Stefan Hopferwieser founded the company St. & A. Hopferwieser as a carpenter in the town of Kollmitzberg. During the first 80 years of the company, the company had diversified into carpentry, sawmill wood and metal manufacturing, producing among others furniture, home appliances, metal hardware and packaging. In 1949, the engineer Josef Umdasch, who was married to Mathilde Hopferwieser (granddaughter of Stefan Hopferwieser) became the managing director of the company rebuilding and restructuring it. Josef Umdasch had been a board member of the company since 1939. In the 1950s prefabricated formwork production and store fitting production arms of the company crystallized into the two modern branches within the corporate group. In 1961 the corporate group was renamed to Umdasch KG. After Josef Umdasch retired his children Hilde and Alfred Umdasch directed the company.

### Doka

In 1958 the company branch Doka was founded. The company founding and company name are interlinked with their first product and projects. In Austria in the 1950s, large infrastructural construction was underway including several hydro electrical dams. The dams were being built on the Danube river (Donau) and its tributaries by the Austrian utility "Donaukraftwerke" or DOKW for short, translating as 'Danube power stations'. Because of the great size of these structures, traditional timber beam formwork was too labor-intensive to form the large walls. Thus a large scale systematic and reusable formwork was developed, with the wooden formwork panels being produced and shipped from the Amstetten company. Originally the DOKW was the delivery address, but then became the product name (DOKW boards). Linguistic usage slurred DOKW into DOKA, which became the name of the newly founded company. In 1961 the first subsidiary was established in Germany, followed in 1977 by Brazil and Kuwait. Since then Doka has grown to service countries in all inhabited continents, particularly in Europe and the Middle East, and in the English speaking countries Great Britain, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the United States. Doka has a well established office in Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

## Criticism

From 2021 to 2023, the company continued to generate revenues in Russia, with no official announcement regarding changes to its operations or manufacturing presence. In June 2024, LPF CAPITAL LLC became the new owner of the organization, and references to UMDASH GROUP AG and DOKA GMBH LLC were removed from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. On 18 June 2024, the company’s name changed from DOKA RUS LLC to REFORM LLC.

## Product and service overview

The formwork products, systems and design service include formwork panels, slab formwork, wall formwork, one-sided wall formwork, climbing formwork, tunnel formwork, dam formwork, bridge formwork (cast-in-place balanced cantilever bridge, concrete arch bridge and steel combination bridge formwork), shoring / falsework, tie systems and field support, software and training. Doka’s business is based on a combination of production, equipment sale & rental, engineering and maintenance. Most of the formwork production takes place at Doka's central plant in Amstetten. The Doka three-ply sheets are made in the branch plant in Banská Bystrica in Slovakia.

## Projects

Projects built using Doka Formwork
* 1996–1998: sixth form schoolhouse by Valerio Olgiati and intern Raphael Zuber
* One Dalton Street, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
* Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge, Missouri, USA
* Aria on the Bay, Miami, USA
* Hudson Yards, New York City, USA
* 220 Central Park South, New York City, USA
* Wanda Vista, Chicago, USA
* Brickell City Centre, Miami, USA
* 432 Park Ave, New York City, USA
* 56 Leonard Street, New York City, USA
* Three World Trade Center, New York City, USA
* Muskrat Falls (hydro-electric dam), Labrador, Canada
* Brayton Point Cooling Towers, Somerset, Massachusetts, USA
* Lotte World Premium Tower, Seoul, South Korea
* Sutong Chang Jiang Highway Bridge, China
* Menara Carigali, Malaysia
* Juma Al Majid Tower, Dubai United Arab Emirates
* Burj Khalifa, United Arab Emirates – the core of the world’s tallest building
* Burj al Arab, United Arab Emirates – one of the most expensive hotels in the world, in Dubai
* Jamarat Bridge Makkah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – multi-level bridge
* Bridgewater Place, United Kingdom
* Tour CBX, France
* BMW Welt, Germany
* Vienna Skylink, Vienna Airport, Austria – enlargement of Vienna’s international airport
* Millennium Tower, Vienna, Austria
* T-Center, Austria
* Kista Science Tower, Sweden
* West Tower, Liverpool, England
* Ada Bridge, Belgrade, Serbia

## Footnotes

* ↑ About Doka
* 1 2 "Doka - Unternehmen - Meilensteine". Archived from the original on 2009-01-22. Retrieved 2009-01-24.
* ↑ "Umdasch Industrieges.m.b.H." www.aeiou.at. Retrieved Oct 28, 2020.
* ↑ "umdasch - We make successful STORES". www.umdasch.com. Retrieved Oct 28, 2020.
* ↑ "Doka - About the company - Sales Network". Archived from the original on 2007-10-15. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
* ↑ "Doka GmbH". Leave Russia. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
* ↑ ACI Formwork for Concrete (Seventh ed.). Figure 1-2.
* ↑ http://www.archipicture.eu/Architekten/Schweiz/Olgiati%20Valerio/Valerio%20Olgiati%20-%20Paspels%20School%201.html