The cousins who have for forty years been behind Samherji, one of Iceland’s most influential and sometimes controversial fishing companies, have established a new venture at the heart of their home town to foster new enterprises and industry in the Eyjafjörður region.
It’s now forty years since they acquired the then ailing company and its trawler and converted it to operate as a filleter – which formed the basis of what has since become an internation fishing and processing giant. Throughout these decades, Samherji has remained based in the north coast port of Akureyri – and now CEO Thorsteinn Már Baldvinsson and director of vessel operations Kristján Vilhelmsson have set up Drift EA to offer facilities and support to entrepreneurs and businesses to develop their ideas.
‘We wanted to commemorate the 40th anniversary in a symbolic way and, by doing so, contribute to new stories of this kind being told here in our hometown. This December, exactly 40 years have passed since the vessel Akureyrin EA-10 embarked on its first fishing trip. The goal is for the old Landsbanki building to become a centre of innovation here in the Eyjafjördur area,’ Kristján Vilhelmsson said.
The remits are pretty wide – and the focus is on projects in the fields of food production, health and medical products, biotechnology, software solutions for the fishing industry and green solutions.
‘We have always based Samherji’s headquarters in Akureyri, operated the company’s vessels from here and built well-equipped processing plants in Akureyri and Dalvík. Now we want to create fertile ground for innovation in this historic building in Akureyri and further support the development of the economy in our local community,’ said Thorsteinn Már Baldvinsson, emphasising that Drift EA’s primary focus will revolve around projects aimed at advancing value creation and cultivating future business growth within the Eyjafjördur area.
In the lead-up to founding Drift EA, consultations were held with domestic and international partners across various innovation sectors.
Drift EA will be based in the old Landsbanki building in the centre of Akureyri – which was acquired last year by investment vehicle Kaldbakur ehf., which is partly owned by the cousins.
