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Sales to and services for aquaculture have been a growing part of Hampidjan’s operations in recent years and its new company, Eldi represents the future of that growth.
Eldi will be on the Hampidjan stands at IceFish 2026, stand D50 and E42.
Hampdian acquired Vonin in the Faroe Islands in 2016 and with the acquisition of Mørenot in 2023, the importance of aquaculture increased. In the fall of 2024, Fiizk Protection joined the group, a company that designs and manufactures liceskirts to protect against salmon lice infestation.
The acquisition of the Indian company Kohinoor earlier this year added key elements 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.
Following these acquisitions the decision was taken to combine activities relating to aquaculture into one international company, ELDI with the headquarters in Norway. The parent company will be ELDI Holding.
Extensive operations will be in Norway, 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;10 companies will therefore 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, for example 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 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 handling 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.
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.
To join Hampidjan and Eldi at the Icelandic Fisheries & Aquaculture Exhbition and conference (IceFish) contact ttattum@mercatormedia.com.
Image:
Chairman of the Board of ELDI: Hjörtur Erlendsson, CEO of Hampidjan hf.
