
2011-03-13
Quality seafood with traditions
Located on Vikna, an island on the Mid-Norwegian coast, Nils Williksen is placed in the heart of one of the most prosperous areas for fisheries and aquaculture in Norway. It stems from this, that the company traditions are strongly tied to the coastal culture. The way of life has always been based on the sea, coastal fisheries and traditional processing of seafood.
Nils Williksen is a supplier of quality seafood with long traditions in serving demanding customers in the international market. Their mission is not to be large; rather to be the first choice of selected customers, providing high quality seafood products in lasting business relationships. The company was founded back in 1883 as a small family owned business. It remained small until the end of the 1980’s, when it was modernized to become an integrated, medium sized seafood company in Norwegian terms.
Pescatech was hired in as an external analyst to perform an audit of existing processing methods. The aim was to locate bottlenecks and seek quick wins through an Opti-advice processing study. Secondary; the tasks included validating and seek to improve at hand proposals from different equipment suppliers.
The result was a report slightly diverting the focus towards the findings from a careful study of the processing scenario. The report included technical layout proposals with the aim to improve the product flow and combine best possible equipment supplied by most qualified vendors. Pescatech stayed as a part of the Nils Williksen team until the project was successfully completed and the role as temporary internal project department was fulfilled.
Nils Williksen comments: “Pescatech brings onboard necessary competencies within factory design from start to end. Their knowledge of equipment suppliers and available options provides us with better possibilities, when choosing our equipment and project partners”.
Other case stories
A couple of hours travel south of Bergen you can find the Bremnes Seashore harvesting plant at Øklandsvågen. Bremnes Seashore is one of Norways most respected salmon brands with a history of 50 years within fish farming and processing.
Placed north of Tromsø on an island named Skjervøy is Lerøy Aurora with the name originating from Aurora Borealis; a light phenomenon seen on clear nights in the northern hemisphere.
Situated on the island Austevoll Norway, Austevoll Fiskeindustri AS is a modern processing plant for salmon and pelagic products. The combination of competencies within more species sends Austevoll Fiskeindustri with it’s partners to the top as one of the largest seafood companies in Norway.
More than once cod producers in Europe have found their natural resources facing the brink of extinction with cod population dropping dramatically. Over fishing and little or no focus on sustainability has driven this industry and the companies within to a game of “survival of the fittest”.