The 2025 Business Strategy - Scaling globally through growth and value chain innovation
Our 2025 strategy comprises three key strategic objectives for the continued growth and business development. Increasingly sustainable farming practices is the very foundation of all areas of the strategy.
Production growth
We aim for an annual harvest of 130 000 tonnes by 2025 (excluding Shetland). Growth will mainly be driven by improved utilization of current operations, in addition to establishing Newfoundland as our new farming region. Discontinuing our salmon farming operations in Shetland represents an important milestone in our strategy to concentrate future farming activities in Norway and Canada, where we see the largest potential for profitable growth.
We will focus on post-smolt investments, target new licenses and seize opportunities within new technology. In some regions, there is also potential for continued improvement of site utilization. We participate in new growth initiatives, M&As, joint ventures, and greenfield projects, and seek cooperation with farmers in existing areas.
Our post-smolt program will allow us to better utilize our seawater licenses by moving more growth to land. In Rogaland, we have promising results with post-smolt, reducing the time in sea from the previous norm of 18 months to less than 12 months. With our post-smolt program, we expect to improve fish health, welfare and survival rates, thereby securing harvest volumes.
Cost improvements
Grieg Seafood targets cost improvements in each region. To improve operational performance, we will maintain a rigorous focus on fish health and welfare. We will also drive performance improvements through continuous research and development, and the utilization of new technologies.
While our post-smolt strategy increases investment expenditures, we expect it to reduce operational expenditures and reduce overall costs, due to reduction of mortalities, disease outbreaks, sea lice treatments, and fish handling. Our farming experience and our data analyses indicate that reduced time in the sea will reduce risk of biological challenges such as sea lice, Pancreas Disease (PD), winter ulcers, and ISA. We will also drive performance improvements through continuous research and development, as well as through the utilization of new technologies.
Value chain repositioning
We aim to increase the value of our products by becoming an innovation partner for our customers. We have a fully integrated sales and market organization, and aim to increase the value of our products through a stronger presence in the market, based on strategic partnerships in retail and food service, value added processing (VAP) category development, and brand cultivation.
The establishment of the Newfoundland region
With the acquisition of Grieg Newfoundland AS, we took an important step towards realization of the 2025 objectives. The investment has a long-term harvest potential of 30-45 000 tonnes Atlantic salmon and includes long-term exclusive farming rights in Placentia Bay, a farmable area larger than the Faroe Islands. With proximity to the US East Coast, the acquisition reinforces our US market exposure and underpins the 2025 strategy to strengthen our position as a global leader in sustainable salmon farming.