At the start of January, Rodé Vis changed its name to Lerøy Seafood Netherlands. Lerøy bought an ownership interest in this fish processing business in 2012, and took complete control of it in 2016. Rodé Vis has in common with the Group that it is a growing family business established in a fishing region, with a passion for Norwegian salmon.
Watch the video from Lerøy Seafood Netherlands:
This year, Lerøy in Sweden inaugurated a cutting edge seafood centre at Kungälv, just north of Gothenburg.
“Our new seafood centre will give our whole business a big boost, and it will greatly reduce our environmental footprint. For our customers, it means that we can supply even fresher fish”, says the Managing Director of Leröy Seafood AB, Mattias Gunnarsson.
The 6,000 square metre centre is the most modern of its kind and has a strong focus on energy efficiency. It combines a modern and highly efficient distribution centre with facilities for portioning and packaging fresh fish, which is a concept that Lerøy has also used in several other European countries.
In PwC’s climate index, Lerøy was ranked as one of ten companies in Norway that are cutting their emissions in line with the Paris Agreement. Lerøy introduced carbon reporting in 2010, and since then it has greatly increased its expertise in the area.
“In 2020, we set ourselves some challenging targets for reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. They were approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in 2021. In order to set the targets, we needed to know what our current emissions were. We have therefore worked systematically to establish reporting routines that ensure we have accurate figures for our CO2e emissions”, says Head of ESG and Quality in Lerøy Seafood Group, Anne Hilde Midttveit.
The climate index assesses Norway’s 100 biggest companies based on historical data for their emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, how much the companies have cut emissions over the past 3 years, which sources of greenhouse gas emissions are covered by the companies’ targets and calculations, and their targets for future emissions.
Read more: Lerøy's work with climate is bearing fruit
“We still have some way to go, particularly with respect to measuring Scope 3 emissions. These are the emissions generated by the products we buy from third parties and that are used in the various parts of our value chain. We are working closely with our suppliers to reduce these emissions, and we are finding that together we can succeed. We are fairly confident that we have a good grip on this now. It is nice to have goals that everyone at the group can help us to achieve”, says Anne Hilde Midttveit.
On 23 October this year, it was a Lerøy partner since 2017, Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), and their sister organization Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), a non-profit pharmaceutical company that researches and develops medicines for forgotten diseases, which was the recipient of the annual Telethon.
Thousands of companies make a contribution to the Telethon every year, and most of these contributions come through local phone campaigns. Lerøy participated together with other local businesses at the annual event in Bergen.
A field doctor from Doctors Without Borders visited the head office and talked about what it is like to work for the organisation and shared experiences from the important work they do abroad, for our employees. An internal fundraising in Lerøy resulted in close to NOK 90,000 for this year's campaign.
Read more: TV-aksjonen - a Norwegian phenomenon
Coller FAIRR ranks the world's largest producers of protein according to a number of sustainability criteria, and seafood is on top of the ranking again shows this year's results.
Ever since the world's first sustainability index for the production of meat, seafood and dairy products was presented in 2018, Lerøy and other Norwegian seafood companies have been among the very best. Seafood is a climate winner.
Norwegian seafood companies received once again top score; three of the five ranked on top include Mowi, Grieg Seafood and Lerøy.
Read more: Coller FAIRR Protein Producer Index 2022
At Lerøy’s first ever capital markets day at the end of September, the management team presented Lerøy Seafood Group's strategic priorities, which are focused on a fully integrated value chain and aquaculture. Lerøy launched a number of specific goals at the event, including an aim to reach NOK 50 billion of turnover by 2030.
“We have set ourselves ambitious but achievable goals. Their common denominator is improving operational efficiency across all segments, and we have clear plans for how to do this. I am confident that we are on the right track”, says Lerøy Seafood Group's CEO, Henning Beltestad.
Read more: Capital Markets Day 2022
Later in September, the Norwegian government proposed introducing a resource rent tax on aquaculture from 1 January 2023.
“The situation has been chaotic, and it still is, both for us as a company and for our customers, in spite of some attempts by the government to clarify matters. Unfortunately, the government does not appear to be willing to go far enough to solve the situation they have plunged the industry into. The industry is in a holding pattern. Whereas we used to take a long-term approach to supplying the market, now we have to assess the situation on a week by week basis”, says Henning Beltestad.
Read more: Resource rent tax proposal brings increased uncertainty
