Holmøy attracts and retains talent with a design for growth

Holmøy has a passion for clean, healthy and climate-friendly fish. One of Norway’s largest seafood groups began in 1973 and today, Holmøy Maritime consists of aquaculture, fishing vessels, a port cold storage facility and a fish processing plant.

Headquartered in Holmen, Sortland in northern Norway, Holmøy Products is the fish processing arm of the Holmøy group. In 2024 they opened their new filleting line in a purpose-built facility designed to optimize both their filleting capacity and the workplace environment. Marel has been working with Holmøy to develop this advanced, future-looking project.

To address the challenge of attracting and retaining employees in a labor scarce industry, Holmøy worked with architectural firm Snøhetta who promote architecture and design as a positive force within the world. Together they explored how architectural design could create a positive work environment, be functional and fit within the landscape.

When considering their processing needs Holmøy wanted to explore how technology could work for them. They chose Marel as their hardware and software partner. “When you enter into a partnership like this with Marel, it’s a commitment that goes both ways. We are absolutely certain we will work well and work purposefully to develop the industry over the next ten years together,” said Holm.

Salmon is in high demand globally, with consumers demanding greater transparency about the products they’re buying. The Marel hardware and software installed in the new facility ensure Holmøy is well positioned to take advantage of the forecast growth of the salmon and increase the transparency of their products.

Grading, filleting and growth

The collaboration with Marel began in 2020, designing a whole fish grading solution and secondary processing line including a Grader and the MS 2750 Filleting machine. The installation is scalable, new hardware can be seamlessly integrated into the current line enabling future growth in capacity. Capacity growth is happening quickly for Holmøy’s salmon processing. Before the new facility Holmøy processed 26,000 tons of salmon. When the new facility opened to plan in March 2024, processing capacity was 30,000. Two years later they have increased to 35,000 tons and their limit is far from reached. “We can easily increase production to 70,000 tons by adding more equipment,” Holm was happy to report.

Flexibility built-in

The grader solution is the heart of the factory, providing the flexibility to meet the market demands by enabling the sorting and packing of multiple product types simultaneously. “We have 24 products that we can pack at the same time to meet 50 to 60 orders simultaneously.” By being able to process multiple orders at the same time to specific customer requirements Holmøy can confidently expand their global distribution market.

In the filleting department the MS 2750 has lived up to its reputation for accuracy and excellence at helping processors make the most of their valuable raw material. “What surprised me about the filleting is that we have 2% more yield on the fillets that we cut with the MS 2750, it’s the right choice for us,” said Holm. The set up of the filleting line creates further processing flexibility with the ability to produce all standard fillets trims.

Building a good place to work

Holmøy embraced the opportunity inherent in developing a purpose-built facility. Through the careful consideration of their needs today and into the future, Holmøy could design the processing line first and then design the building around it; preparing the space and infrastructure for future growth. Holmøy’s collaboration with architect Snøhetta resulted in a space that not only met production needs but also created a positive workplace. Job satisfaction is linked to the spaces in which we work. Holmøy’s carefully chosen colour palette reflects the spectacular natural environment of the region, large windows connect workers to the outside world when standing on the production line and allow natural light to fill the space. Understanding the importance of regular breaks, the canteen provides a warm and cosy space where employees can relax away from the production environment.

Back to technology

Technology is crucial to the sustainable future of seafood processing. Holmøy understands the adoption of technology as it develops will keep them competitive and ensure they can address challenges such as regulatory changes in food safety, traceability, and increasing sustainability practices, and margin pressures. “We’ve used artificial intelligence (AI) in production and in the future, I think there will be more. Operators will only monitor the production, not handle product manually,” Holm predicts. Marel’s solutions are already making Holm’s predictions a reality by offering accurate and gentle automated solutions. 

“One reason we chose Marel is they have very reliable processing equipment. It was also important to us that the hardware is connected with Marel’s AXIN Software (previously Innova) so we have full traceability and can monitor production at all stages,” said Holm. Marel Software is specifically designed for food processing, supporting business with accurate data collection and collation and real-time time reporting. Processors can make changes as they’re needed to optimize production lines, as well as run multiple historic reports for easy and accurate auditing and strategic planning. As with Marel’s hardware solutions, our software is flexible to meet Holmøy’s needs today, ten years into the future and beyond.

After a successful opening in March, the new facility is settling into its new role within the Holmøy Marine group. “Meeting the future with a supplier like Marel it will be absolutely fantastic,” said Holm. At Marel, we are equally excited to be supporting Holmøy to transform their future.

About Holmøy

Through local ownership, Holmøy have built one of Norway's largest seafood groups since 1973, which today constitutes Holmøy Maritime. Their main activity is the capture of wild fish and aquaculture. Through four modern fishing vessels and aquaculture permits, approximately 350 employees ensure that 225 million meals are produced each year. Their main base is in Holmen in Sortland municipality where they have an administration building, a salmon growth center and one of Norway's most modern service ports. From here we offer freezing services, a warehouse hotel, a quay and bunkers.