About us

Ole Mikkel Lerøen’s operations came to include retail sales in Bergen, the sale of live shellfish and a budding export business. In 1939, two of his employees, Hallvard Lerøy Sr. and Elias Fjeldstad, established a wholesaler and seafood export company – Hallvard Lerøy AS. This company went on to invest in facilities where they could receive pelagic fish and whitefish, and in fish farming. Poor results and insufficient capitalisation forced the company to close down or sell these operations in the early 1990s in order to safeguard their core business: wholesale and exports. In 1994, the company carried out a last emergency share issue and started the process of reestablishing a healthy business. At that time, the company's equity was valued at NOK 20 million, prior to an issue worth NOK 5 million.

New strategy
The potential for growth within fish farming and increasing customer requirements necessitated a radical change in the Group's business concept and strategy. Up to 1997, the Group was a family-owned operation. In 1997, however, a private placing with financial investors was carried out for the first time, aiming to develop the Group in every part of the value chain. This was the start of what was to become a series of major investments within fish farming. In 1999, the company acquired a minority interest in what was then Hydrotech-Gruppen AS. In the summer of 2001, Norskott Havbruk AS was founded with the sole purpose of acquiring Golden Sea Products, now Scottish Sea Farms Ltd. in the UK.

Access to capital and expertise
The Group was listed on Oslo Stock Exchange in June 2002, providing access to the capital market for the Group and thereby strategic financial room to manoeuvre. Sufficient access to capital, in addition to expertise, have been critical factors in developing the Group from a wholesaler/seafood exporter to what is now a global and fully integrated seafood corporation.

At the turn of the new millennium, large parts of the fish farming industry were seriously undercapitalised and suffering from the impact of a short-term perspective and a lack of risk management. Lerøy Seafood Group was in a good position in August 2003 when we purchased Nye Midnor AS as it was then called – the company that currently makes up the main share of Lerøy Midt AS. The Group went on to acquire Lerøy Aurora AS in 2005, Fossen AS and the remaining shares in Hydrotech-Gruppen AS in 2006, Lerøy Vest in 2007 via a business combination, and a majority shareholding in Sjøtroll Havbruk AS in 2010. The acquisition and demerger of Villa Organic were conducted in 2014. The above mentioned companies, a number of minor acquisitions, highly skilled local management and organic growth have allowed the Lerøy Seafood Group to develop into one of the world's largest producers of Atlantic salmon and trout.

Investments in processing
The Group has over time made substantial investments within the VAP, Sales & Distribution segment. These investments in VAP have provided more room for manoeuvre in relation to the sale of own-produced salmon and trout, generated a wider product range and opened the door to new markets.
The Group made their ambitions clear in 2002 with the investment in fish smoking capacity in Sweden (Lerøy Smøgen). It continued to inivest and in 2005 invested in a processing facility for whitefish in Bulandet (Bulandet Fiskeindustri) in order to further expand their product range. In 2006, the Group expanded its high-value processing plant for trout and salmon on the island of Osterøy (Lerøy Fossen). The Group's acquisition of 50.1% of the shares in the Dutch seafood company Rode Beheer BV Group took place in 2012. The remaining 49.9% was acquired in 2016. The Group has subsequently gone on to expand capacity at all its existing plants.

Lerøy Seafood Center in Urk, the Netherlands (construction start 2017) is a factory built with a focus on a very high level of automation and a number of technological innovations in the production of smoked and freshly packaged products. It is one of the most modern factories for these types of products in Europe. Unfortunately, the framework conditions for industrial development in Norway are increasingly unsatisfactory. This has resulted in an increase in production outsourced from Norway to low-cost countries, however Lerøy Seafood Group has invested heavily in production on the coast of Norway to counteract this trend. Automation is frequently a key element in these investments. A good example of this is the highly modern factory on the island of Jøsnøya in Hitra.

Reaching new markets
The Group's ambition to increase demand for seafood in the form of new products for new markets has been the constant driving force behind the Group's investments in the VAP, Sales & Distribution segment. This segment not only sells its own production of salmon, trout and whitefish, but also has a high level of active collaboration with third parties, ensuring a wide product range for the Group within seafood. In recent years, the Group has also made significant investments in factory capacity, in order to take part in leading the“revolution” within the distribution of fresh seafood. These investments have been made in what is known as “fish-cuts”, processing facilities where proximity to the customer is key. The distribution of fresh seafood requires quality throughout the entire organization, flexibility, continuity in supply and a high level of service. Today, the Group has a number of fish-cut facilities across Europe. Leroy Processing Spain has achieved an impressive development within “ready-to-eat meals” and sushi. Over the past five years, the company has built factories in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante and Gran Canaria. In the spring of 2021, the company will open its first factory in Italy, in Porto Viro, south of Venice. The Group currently sells seafood to more than 80 markets worldwide.

Innovator within seafood
Ever since its very foundation, the Group has taken a pioneering role within a number of areas in the Norwegian, and subsequently international, seafood industry. The main focus has primarily been on developing markets for seafood. The Group has repeatedly been the first to enter new markets, or to commercialise new species of fish. One of the main goals for the Group is to be an innovator within seafood, and preferably in cooperation with the end customer. This is important not only within product development, but also in other areas such as the development of efficient logistics and distribution. This pioneering spirit is still very much alive in the Group.

Wild catches and whitefish industry
2017 will be remembered as one of the most important years in the company's long history. With the acquisition of 100% of the shares in the trawler shipping company Havfisk ASA (now Lerøy Havfisk ASA) and 100% of the shares in Norway Seafoods AS (now Lerøy Norway Seafoods AS) in the autumn of 2016, the Group embarked on a new and exciting journey. In 2017, whitefish was fully integrated into the Group's well- established value chain. Since then, the Group has consecutively invested in both new, modern trawlers and industrial facilities. Lerøy Seafood Group is now a fully integrated company, having achieved control of the entire value chain for a full range of seafood – from the sea to the consumer.

Sustainable seafood producer
Lerøy Seafood Group works continuously on sustainability in every part of the value chain. We focus on all the different areas related to sustainability:
> Environment
> Society
> Economy

We have sustained our perpetual focus on improvements within these areas in 2020.

The Group has carried out a number of projects within environmental sustainability, such as electrification of feed barges and boats, reduction of food waste and plastic, projects related to fish welfare and fish health, lice, certification and reduction of deforestation relating to raw materials for feed.

The Group is also involved in a number of initiatives within social sustainability, such as leadership development training for our employees and employee surveys. We are also involved in projects relating to supplier follow-up, ripple effect analyses and different collaboration platforms with local communities and other stakeholders.

In 2020, a year significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, we have once again proven that the Group's business model is economically sustainable. The strong market position for seafood and the unique expertise in the organization ensures that we are well-prepared for challanges for this magnitude.

At the start of 2021, Lerøy Seafood Group has a unique position for further sustainable growth and development.

Our employees are the Group’s most important resource. Every single day, all year round, our employees supply seafood amounting to five million meals in more than 80 countries. Together, we provide healthy and delicious high- quality seafood to customers and consumers worldwide, allowing us to make forward-looking and sustainable use of the resources in the sea. We are proud of our interaction with all our employees throughout the value chain and with our partners, and we are proud of our contributions to society.
Lerøy is part of a global industry subject to continuous developments and extremely tough competition. We are grateful to have so many talented and flexible employees who are willing to learn on our team, helping us achieve our vision, reach our goals and reinforce the “One Lerøy” culture moving forward.

Earnings for Lerøy over the past five years have been good from an historic perspective. At the same time, we know there is major room for improvement. As a fully-integrated seafood company, we gain unparalleled opportunities to drive the development of our value chain and product categories, in collaboration with key end customers worldwide. The future development of our company will be determined by our ability to achieve continuous improvements, increased efficiency, innovation and development of sustainable solutions throughout the value chain. If we are to sustain our competitive strengths in an industry exposed to global competition, we have to work extremely hard to develop our operations, keeping the customer in mind at all times and basing our activities on our values. In 2017, we started the process of developing a system for continuous improvement specially designed for our activities – Lerøy Way. Lerøy Way was implemented after a year in which we reported record- high results, and represents our guiding principles for how to improve together as one company – One Lerøy.

The company’s core corporate values
Lerøy Seafood Group’s basic corporate values are: honest, open,responsible and creative. These values are based on the Group’s vision to create the world’s leading and most profitable global supplier of sustainable quality seafood.
It is important to ensure that every employee is familiar with the Group's values and what these imply. We have therefore translated our values into the local language in each country
where we have operations, making sure they are easily available for all employees online, on our Intranet and in brochures. For us, it is important that our values guide all our actions. In 2020 we launched Lerøy leadership standard which is embedded in the Group’s values. We also measure the extent to which we live up to our values completing an annual employee which all companies of the Group participate in.

Everything changed in March 2020, not just here in Norway but also in our markets worldwide. We were uncertain about the flow of goods, possible transport restrictions and how to keep production going. We were able to solve these types of challenges relatively quickly.

Well-equipped for change
As a food producer, Lerøy plays a critical function for society, and the Group is defined as an “essential business”. Thanks to the hard work of our employees, good collaboration with Sjømat Norge and the Norwegian authorities, we were able to gradually solve the puzzle of continuing supplies. The global population needs food, even when we are in the midst of a pandemic.

The hotel, restaurant and catering market came almost to a full stop, but we saw an increase in grocery sales. The pandemic has encouraged more consumers to prepare and eat seafood at home. With our value chain and talented employees throughout the Group, we were well-equipped to make changes to production following the changes in the market, and we now have an even stronger position than at the start of the pandemic.

Investments at home and abroad
Lerøy has made major investments in recent years in the value chain for farming and in wild catches. We have continued to invest in 2020, despite the pandemic. In February, we celebrated the christening of our most recent and highly modern trawler, “Kongsfjord”. Just less than a month after Norway went into lockdown, we started the work on extending the RAS facility at Lerøy Midt. And in the autumn of 2020, work was completed on our new RAS facility for Lerøy Aurora.

We have opened our fifth factory in Spain and a new seafood centre in Madrid this spring. We are currently in the process of opening our own production and distribution plant in Italy, and we have announced our plans for a new RAS facility for Lerøy Sjøtroll.

Efficient and sustainable value chain
Lerøy’s vision is to have the world’s most efficient and sustainable value chain for seafood. We will achieve this by means of close and successful collaboration with our suppliers and customers. We have therefore launched our own brand of salmon certified by a third party – Lerøy SalmonTM – guaranteeing a high standard. In 2020, we also introduced organic salmon and ASC certified trout to the market. In addition to that, we have collaborated with our customers to develop traceability technology, providing consumers in France and Belgium with information on the entire life cycle of the product, from roe to plate.

Lerøy supplies a product the whole world needs, and this need will only increase. Seafood is healthy, delicious and has a low carbon footprint. We aim to continuously strive for improvements, by building an efficient, modern and sustainable value chain.

Stronger together
The fact that we are in control of the entire value chain makes it easier for us to identify where and how we can take action for the Sustainable Development Goals. We have therefore decided to make dramatic cuts to our carbon footprint (measured in CO2e) by 2030. We have commited to ambitious science-based emissions reduction target in order to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement - to limit the global warming to 1,5 degrees C. The Group will introduce measures throghout the value chain to achieve this target.

We have already made good progress in 2021. Thanks to our employees, suppliers customers and our value chain which is suited for the future, Lerøy has a highly optimistic outlook for the future of the company. Our slogan says it perfectly: One Lerøy: Unique alone - Stronger together.

Our main office is located in Bergen, but we have fishing vessels and fish farms in operation along the entire coast of Norway. Lerøy owns 10 trawlers and receives regular deliveries from more than 600 vessels fishing along the coast. These vessels make daily deliveries of whitefish to onshore stations, where the fish is processed and packaged, while well boats transport salmon and trout from our fish farms in North Norway, Central Norway and West Norway to localities for processing.
In addition to our production and packaging plants in Norway, we have production and distribution in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Turkey.

The fisherman-farmer, Ole Mikkel Lerøen, who would row to the fish market in Bergen to sell live fish at the end of the 19th century, most probably could not imagine what he was starting – a commercial enterprise that 120 years later would be serving the entire world 1.8 billion seafood meals every year.
Today, Lerøy is a world-leading seafood corporation, supplying thousands of different products to shops, restaurants, canteens and hotels worldwide.

One important element in Lerøy Seafood Group’s strategy is to be a fully integrated supplier of the Group's key products, and the business is currently operated via a number of subsidiaries in Norway and abroad.

The Group reports within three segments
> Wild Catch
> Farming
> VAP, Sales & Distribution

Wild Catch
The Wild Catch segment comprises businesses acquired in 2016, when Lerøy Seafood Group became the sole owner of both Havfisk AS and Norway Seafoods Group AS. These are businesses with substantial operations within the catch and processing of whitefish in Norway. Lerøy Havfisk currently has ten trawlers, while Lerøy Norway Seafoods runs factories in Berlevåg, Båtsfjord, Forsøl, Kjøllefjord, Melbu, Stamsund, Sørvær and Tromvik.

Farming
The Farming segment comprises the Group's production of salmon, trout and cleaner fish up to the time of harvest. The Group has three fully integrated value chains for production of salmon and trout, located in North Norway, Central Norway and West Norway. The Group's companies in this segment - Lerøy Aurora (North Norway), Lerøy Midt (Central Norway) and Lerøy Sjøtroll (West Norway) - are major employers along the Norwegian coastline and strive to be visible and active in all the regions in which they operate.

VAP, Sales & Distribution
Lerøy has a global reach within the VAP, Sales & Distribution segment. The company works with sales, market and product development, distribution and simple processing of the Group’s own raw materials, but also a large volume of raw materials from partners and a network of suppliers. Lerøy Seafood Group has wholesalers, factories and fish-cuts in a number of different markets worldwide.

The VAP, Sales & Distribution segment is involved in processing of mainly salmon and trout, as well as other species. Our facilities are located on the island of Osterøy outside of Bergen, in Smøgen in Sweden, in Finland, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Portugal, Italy and Turkey. The segment's products are increasingly sold to the global market.

Customer focus

Lerøy is a customer-oriented business and our success is contingent upon the success of our customers. We shall focus on growth in new and existing markets, based on forward-looking and innovative solutions and alliances that can provide profitability and increased market share. The company shall play a leading role within product development in order to ensure customer satisfaction and, as a result, profitability.

Efficient and creative value chain and alliances

Values are created in value chains and in businesses in value chains that form a network and competitive processes for their customers. Lerøy aims to create the world’s most efficient and sustainable value chain for seafood. This shall be achieved by continuously developing processes and improving the Group's core operations, as well as further developing long-term, binding alliances with both suppliers and customers.

Sustainability

For Lerøy, developments shall be based on a perspective of perpetuality. To achieve this, the Board of Directors, management and employees must maintain a high focus on sustainability. Through continuous processes, improved routines and climate cuts throughout the value chain, we will continue to work to achieve our vision of becoming the most sustainable supplier of quality seafood.

Attractive employer

We shall be a leading player in a global industry in which the changes in framework conditions require flexible employees who are dynamic and willing to learn. We aim to attract, retain and develop our talented employees by offering formal and informal courses and training, by encouraging an increase in internal mobility and by allowing employees to explore in-house career opportunities.

The managerial role at Lerøy

Appointment to a managerial position at Lerøy is a declaration of trust and carries significant responsibilities. All managers shall represent the Group's values and act as positive ambassadors for Lerøy. We are confident that all our managers will lead the way as positive role models, complying with Lerøy's management standards, which are based on the Group's values: honest, open, responsible and creative.

Strategic business development

The Group has previously made substantial acquisitions, and the main focus in the years to come will be the further development and optimisation of the current organization. Strategic business development will also play a decisive role in future developments for the Group.

Risk management

We shall continue to develop operating systems for identifying risks in order to avoid imbalances between commercial risks and the profitability requirement. The Group’s risk profile and its strategies for value creation shall be reconciled with the Group’s available resources.

Continuous improvements

We continue to develop by means of constant improvements to our processes and value chain. Our success will be determined by and made visible in our ability to create added value for our customers. Our results can be measured in relation to stability of operations and raw material supply, and in relation to economic, environmental and social sustainability. We shall continue to focus on the right level of quality, food safety, traceability and service. The pioneering spirit and innovations at Lerøy shall continue to develop.