Cermaq

Cermaq ASA

Type	Public
Industry	Seafood
Founded	1995
Headquarters	Oslo, Norway
Key people	Geir Isaksen (CEO) Sigbjørn Johnsen (Chairman)
Products	Salmon, Trout, Coho Fish feed
Revenue	NOK 7,721 million (2007)
Employees	4,008 (2007)
Website	www.cermaq.no

Cermaq (OSE: CEQ) is a Norwegian fish farm and fish feed company. The company is owned 43.5% by the Government of Norway and is listed on Oslo Stock Exchange. The company has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway. The company has activities in Norway, Canada, Chile and the United Kingdom.

Operations

The company's operations in fish farming are branded Mainstream and have operations in Norway, Scotland, Canada and Chile. The company produces Atlantic salmon, coho and trout. In Canada the operations are on Vancouver Island with offices located in Campbell River and Tofino. In Scotland Mainstream operates on the Orkney Islands, with offices in Kirkwall. In Norway the company operates through Follalaks with operations in Nordland and Finnmark while the operations in Chile are around Puerto Montt. The total production of salmon was 88,700 tonnes in 2005.

With the brand name EWOS Cermaq produces fish feed in both Norway, Canada, United Kingdom and Chile. The company has factories in Florø, Halsa and Bergneset (Norway); Coronel (Chile); Surrey (Canada) and Westfield (United Kingdom). The Research and Development departments are located in Dirdal, Bergen (Norway) and Puerto Montt (Chile).

In addition Cermaq has minority ownership in grain wholesaler Unikorn (49.8%), the fish processing company Hordafôr (35.1%) and the oxygen equipment retailer OxSeaVision (45.2%).

History

Cermaq was founded as Statkorn Holding when the commercial division of Statens Kornforretning (now Statens Landbruksforvaltning) was demerged and made a limited company in 1995. The company operated grain wholesaling. In 1996 the company started to purchase NorAqua, a fish food producer, and in 1998 Cermaq started purchasing fish farms. In 2000 the government sells the first 20% of the company. Through the 2000s Cermaq has sold its original grain wholesaling divisions and entered the seafood and fish food market. It was listed on Oslo Stock Exchange in 2006.