Salmon farmer and processor Mowi is seeking to realise up to €400m ($446.3m) in cost savings over the next five years, largely through new technologies.
Norway-headquartered Mowi, which operates across the entire value chain from feeding and farming all the way to the consumer, will largely achieve its objectives via the employment of so-called Industry 4.0 technology.
In Mowi’s case, that includes digitalisation, automation and robotics.
The cost-improvement programme entails savings of €300-400m over five years, which Mowi said are “important to combat inflation, biological measures and more complex regulations”.
Technology initiatives will include “remote operation centres, real-time monitoring of biomass, digital lice counting, assisted and automatic feeding, and tracking fish welfare”, the company said in a presentation at its annual capital markets day event.
Savings of €307m have already been realised since 2018 through the second quarter of this year, of which €207m came from farming.
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CEO Ivan Vindheim said: “We launched Mowi 4.0 in 2021 and since then have invested heavily in a range of measures to introduce greater efficiency and automation across our value chain.
“We are already seeing the positive impact this has had on sustainability, productivity and cost reduction, and we expect to reap further benefits in the years to come.”
Mowi said it is targeting annual revenue growth of 7-8% over the next five years as it aims to reach €8.5bn in 2029, compared to the €5.5bn posted in 2023. Growth was 11% last year and 17% in 2022.
Boosting productivity by 10% is a key aim to achieve its revenue target, with Mowi citing wages and personnel expenses as being the second-largest cost item amounting to €648m in 2023.
Productivity has risen 18% since 2019 through the second quarter of this year, aided by a 9% decrease in the full-time equivalent (FTE) metric used to measure employee-related costs.
Mowi, which supplies branded and private-label fresh and frozen salmon, as well as value-added products, has also set a target to reach an annual output of 600,000 tonnes of fish by 2029, compared to half a million tonnes last year.
“We will achieve this through better utilisation of license capacity, while also improving productivity and biological performance of existing production through our investment in postsmolt,” Vindheim said.
He added: “The megatrends that in part are driving demand are stronger than ever. The trend for healthy living, increasing demand for sustainable proteins and not least the unique universal appeal of salmon make our product the natural choice for a steadily growing number of consumers.”
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