on the shoulders of the northern Norwegian pioneering spirit
Photo: Hans Petter Sørensen / www.faroutfocus.no
Steinar and Hans Petter release salmon fry .
Fifty years ago, two newly qualified teachers, Steinar Olaisen and Hans Petter Meland, had a strong desire to create increased activity in a local community on Lovund that was threatened with eviction. In 1972, a seaplane landed in Vassvik Bay on Lovund. It carried plastic bags filled with oxygen and salmon fry.
This was the first farmed fish to be released in Northern Norway.
Together with Vigner and Steinar Olaisen, Hans Petter Meland started Lovund Sjøprodukter in 1972. Some time later, Olaisenlaks and Lovundlaks were also established. The players then had ownership shares in each other to spread the risk. In 1981, Hans Petter gained full ownership of Lovundlaks, and since then the company has been a typical family business with Lovund as its starting point.
The first fish were released into home-made cages made of planks, polystyrene, and fishing nets.
After a short time, it became clear that the home-made cages made of planks, polystyrene and fishing nets were not suitable for dealing with the harsh weather conditions on Helgeland. Steinar and Hans Petter believed that a circular and dynamic cage made of plastic would be better suited for producing fish, and they traveled around the coast with sketches of what they thought could solve their challenge.
Many were skeptical, but in the end, in collaboration with industry players in Mo i Rana, they were able to put the world's first round plastic floating collar into production. The company that produced the floating collar is today known as Helgeland Plast. This is still the leading cage concept in Norway, and the cages built from plastic pipes are now in use worldwide.
Since the 1980s, Lovundlaks has focused on Helgeland and local value creation. Through a continuous search for improvement, the company's ambition is to be a guarantor of jobs in Helgeland - also for future generations.
Today, Lovundlaks is a small local farming company with proud traditions. With a biomass capacity of approximately 5,900 tons, the company produces 12-13,000 tons annually. The people who work here are the engine and the company's most important resource.
It is this knowledge and pioneering spirit that has been built up at Lovund over the past fifty years that Utror now stands on the shoulders of.
We look forward to continuing and driving forward the development of offshore aquaculture in Norway, in what could become an industrial adventure at least as big as the adventure Steinar and Hans Petter started fifty years ago.
Our ambition is to become a leading operator of offshore aquaculture installations on the Norwegian continental shelf.