STRONG PARENT COMPANY A HUGE ADVANTAGE

Recently HB Grandi completed the acquisition of the company Nordanfiskur. Previously, HB Grandi had held a 23.80% stake.

The company was established in Akureyri in 2001 by Útgerdarfélag Akureyringa and Kjarnafædi and to begin with all of its activities were in the north of Iceland. When the company merged with Íslenskt-franskt eldhús, at that time owned by Haraldur Bödvarsson hf, all of its activities were relocated to Akranes.

According to managing director Pétur Thorleifsson, the company has specialised in further processing of seafood in either catering or retail packaging.

‘We are mostly working with products for the domestic market and our customers are grocery stores, large kitchens, canteens in schools, nurseries or workplaces, as well as hotels and restaurants. We work a lot with smoked and cured salmon, plus we are producing a lot of breaded fish dishes that just need to be heated up which saves considerable cooking time,’ he said and commented that although the company was originally set up to serve local markets, it rapidly grew and supplied customers across Europe. He said that in spite of the positive reception in other markets, the focus is now on the home market. Two shipments a day leave Akranes for the Flytjandi freight terminal in Reykjavík, from where products are shipped all over Iceland.

Nordanfiskur now has a staff of 28, which has remained steady in recent years, although the company has grown by adding increasingly automated processes. Product development is an important aspect of the way the business is run and Nordanfiskur’s product list now contains around 300 dishes and products. The company’s turnover in 2013 was ISK 1,260,000.

Pétur Thorleifsson said that it is too early to say what effect HB Grandi’s acquisition of the entire shareholding will have on Nordanfiskur, but he said that having such a strong parent company is bound to strengthen the company.