The aquaculture activities of companies within the Hampiðjan Group are being merged into Eldi, a single new entity headquartered in Norway.
The aquaculture business became an important facet of the group’s operations with the acquisition of Vónin in 2016, and this jumped to a new level when Mørenot became part of the group in 2023, followed the net year by the acquisition of specialist lice skirt manufacturer Fiizk Protection.
Last year sales to aquaculture accounted for 27% of the Hampidjan Group’s overall revenue, and the acquisition of Indian company Kohinoor earlier this year is a further step in the growth of aquaculture as part of the group’s activities, bringing in cost-effective production of fish farming nets, a highly labour-intensive process.
The most extensive operations are naturally in Norway, which is the largest salmon farming country in the world. Within Eldi, there will be seven subsidiaries located in Canada, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Norway, Scotland and Spain. In addition, there are newly established companies in Chile and two others that will be established in the coming weeks in Oman and Saudi Arabia. Eldi will be composed of ten companies in the coming months.
The CEO of Eldi will be Thomas Berg Myrvold, who was the CEO of Mørenot Aquaculture when Hampiðjan acquired Mørenot. Eldi will have a workforce of more than 500 around the world, while the total number of staff at Hampiðjan is currently around 2700.
‘Our vision is to become the global provider of end-to-end aquaculture innovation. This means combining world-class technology, smart products, strong service capabilities and a global footprint with the local presence our customers rely on,’ Thomas Berg Myrvold said.
‘We want to help shape the future of aquaculture by acting as a global player and a solutions-focused innovation company, while remaining firmly rooted in the communities and regions we serve.’
The establishment of a single company to handle fish farming has brought about considerable changes within the Hampiðjan Group, as many of the companies about to come under the Eldi banner currently operate under the names Hampidjan, Mørenot, Fiizk and Vónin.
In three companies that have operated both aquaculture and fishing gear services, the fish farming part will be separated from other operations.
The optimisation that comes with this restructuring for the aquaculture service is significant because it is now possible to coordinate all marketing activities, product development, service offerings and production with a clear strategy and thereby strengthen the organisational power in the aquaculture segment.
Most of the aquaculture nets will be produced at Kohinoor in India, but orders that must be processed at short notice will, as before, be sourced from the production department at Vonin Lithuania. There has been a systematic effort to streamline production for aquaculture in Europe over the past year, and the closure of Mørenot Denmark and Poldan in Poland earlier this year is closely linked to the establishment of Eldi. Production of knotless nets in Norway will be discontinued at the beginning of next year and transferred to Kohinoor, and the same can be said for the production of knotless nets in Hampidjan Baltic in Lithuania in order to achieve even further optimisation and labour cost savings.
The merger of the operations and the establishment of Eldi will create one of the largest companies serving aquaculture, with significant growth potential both in the North Atlantic and in other parts of the world where aquaculture is growing rapidly. A great deal of emphasis has been placed on product development within aquaculture since Hampiðjan’s acquisition of Mørenot, and the results of this could be seen at the AquaNor aquaculture exhibition in Norway last summer, where new products were introduced that attracted a lot of attention from aquaculture companies.
‘The opportunities in aquaculture are great because the need for aquaculture products has never been greater and is growing, not only in salmon but also in other fish species around the world. With the establishment of Eldi, we are combining the capabilities needed to address these challenges in a targeted manner and with clear strategic planning,’ said Hampiðjan CEO and Eldi chairman Hjörtur Erlendsson.
‘Our goal is to be a driving force in the development of the industry and continue to grow on the strong foundation we have today: closer proximity to customers than others have, decades of knowledge and experience in the production of aquaculture equipment, Hampidjan corporate culture where continuous product development is at the forefront and the production efficiency that we are building in India.’
