Sales to and services for aquaculture have been a growing part of Hampidjan’s operations in recent years. With the acquisition of Vonin in the Faroe Islands in 2016, aquaculture became an important part of the group’s operations, and with the acquisition of Mørenot in 2023, the importance of aquaculture grew even more. In the fall of 2024, Fiizk Protection joined the group, a company that designs and manufactures liceskirts to protect against salmon lice infestation.
Sales to aquaculture accounted for around 27% of the Hampidjan group’s total revenue in 2024, or around €86 million. In the first three quarters of this year, sales have reached €88 million and will probably be close to €113 million this year.
The acquisition of the Indian company Kohinoor earlier this year is a key factor in the production of equipment for aquaculture, and the most important of these is the cost-effective production of fish farming nets, which is a very labour-intensive production.
Now it is time to combine activities related to aquaculture into one international company, and that company has been named ELDI. ELDI’s headquarters will be in Norway and the parent company will be ELDI Holding.
The most extensive operations are naturally in Norway, which is the largest salmon farming country in the world. Within ELDI, there will be 7 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. There will therefore be 10 companies that make up ELDI in the coming months.
ELDI is wholly owned by Hampidjan, both directly and through the subsidiaries Vónin in the Faroe Islands and Mørenot in Norway. All companies within ELDI will be given that first name and the second part of the name will be the country name of the company in question, examples of which are ELDI Iceland, ELDI Canada, ELDI Norway, etc.
The CEO of ELDI will be Thomas Berg Myrvold, who was the CEO of Mørenot Aquaculture when Hampidjan acquired Mørenot. The Chairman of the Board of ELDI will be Hjörtur Erlendsson, CEO of Hampidjan hf.
No other company that provides services to aquaculture has as many service centres as ELDI, which total 14, and which handle the washing of aquaculture nets, repairs, impregnation and certifications according to the Norwegian standard NS 9415.
ELDI’s key personell worldwide.
ELDI’s global workforce will be over 500 people, while the total number of employees at Hampidjan is currently around 2,700.
The establishment of a single company that handles fish farming has brought about considerable changes within the Hampidjan Group, as many of the companies in which ELDI operates now operate under the names Hampidjan, Mørenot, Fiizk and Vónin.
In three companies that have operated both fish farming and fishing gear services, the fish farming part will be separated from other operations. Thus, the fish farming service Hampidjan Island in Isafjordur will be set up as a separate company under the name ELDI Iceland.
In the Faroe Islands, the fish farming service has been in Nordskála, which is one of Vonin three operations in the Faroe Islands, while the other two are in Torshavn where bottom trawls are manufactured and the other in Fuglafjordur where pelagic trawls are made and maintained. The operations in Nordskala will henceforth be called ELDI Faroes in a separate company.
Vonin Refa in Norway has also had a mixed operation, where the aquaculture segment will be separated from the fishing gear segment and merged with Mørenot Aquaculture under the name ELDI Norway.
The activities within the Hampidjan Group related to aquaculture will therefore be clearly separated from the other two main business areas, which are fishing gear and the offshore industry.
The optimization 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 organizational 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 produced by the production department at Vonin Lithuania in Lithuania. With this arrangement, it is possible to combine fast delivery when it is important and highly economical production in India at Kohinoor.
As previously stated, there has been a systematic effort to streamline production for aquaculture in Europe over the past year, and the closure of the companies 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 optimization and labour cost savings.
The merger of the operations and the establishment of ELDI will create one of the largest companies serving aquaculture in the world today, and the growth potential on that basis is great, both in the North Atlantic and in other parts of the world where aquaculture is growing rapidly. Great emphasis has been placed on product development within aquaculture since Hampidjan’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. It is also worth mentioning that the stand was awarded as the best stand at this largest aquaculture exhibition held in the world.
Regarding the establishment of ELDI, Thomas Berg Myrvold, CEO of ELDI, says the following:
“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. 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.”
Hjörtur Erlendsson.
Hjörtur Erlendsson, CEO of Hampidjan and Chairman of the Board of ELDI, adds:
“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. 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.”
ELDI’s operations will officially begin on January 1, 2026.
