Norwegian aquaculture equipment suppliers MPI AS (Multi Pump Innovation) and BKW AS are entering into a strategic cooperation agreement to ramp up product development and broaden the product range that the companies offer service and fish farming companies worldwide.
The agreement involves close collaboration within a number of areas including sales and marketing, research and development, plus a capacity increase related to testing of equipment utilised by companies in the fish farming industry.
While MPI develops and manufactures net cleaning robots for the aquaculture industry worldwide, BKW has a product range consisting of barges for cleaning of pen rings and the wrasse shed cleaners, sorting equipment for broodstock, and tanks for transport of live fish.
‘We will jointly offer service companies and fish farmers a package consisting of MPI’s robots to clean the nets and BKW’s barges to clean both the pen rings and wrasse shed cleaners. Providing such a package, where the cleaning job can be carried out from the same work platform, can make cleaning operations at fish farms even more cost-effective,’ said MPI’s CEO Kåre Myrvåg.
As part of the strategic cooperation agreement between the two parties, MPI will take on the sales and marketing responsibility for the products BKW has developed specifically for the fish farming industry. Additionally, the two companies will cooperate closely in order to develop new, cost-efficient solutions and products for the aquaculture industry.
‘Compared to us, MPI has a significantly larger international footprint and an even more professionalised sales organisation. We believe that potential customers will value that we can offer them a more complete cleaning solution under the same umbrella, instead of dealing with two separate suppliers that offer adjoining solutions. We look forward to cooperating closely with MPI going forward and are confident that this is a partnership where one plus one becomes three,’ said Jelle Van Weert, managing director of BKW.
Increased test capacity
Through the agreement with BKW, MPI will also extend the company’s test capacity for net cleaning robots and other equipment. The companies will work together to further develop BKW’s full-scale test facility (fish cage) in Valsøyfjord, east of Kristiansund in Norway to further streamline cleaning of both nets and pens.
‘The investments we will make in BKW’s test facility will make us less dependent on equipment testing at our customers’ facilities, which means both time and cost savings for our customers. In addition, customers of both BKW and MPI will be able to benefit from equipment demonstrations in Valsøyfjord,’Kåre Myrvåg said.
The partnership agreement commenced on 1st April this year.
