New Year status The beginning of a new year is usually a good time to take stock. Something which I, of course, have also done – here, I would like to share my thoughts. There are three main conclusions: 1. Royal Greenland is seeing fantastic growth 2. Royal Greenland has a very meaningful strategy 3. Based on our products, we can take Royal Greenland to ‘the next level’ 1. Royal Greenland is seeing fantastic growth By the time you read this issue of Navigatio, our results for 2013/2014 will have already been published. They are very satisfactory: – Sales of the company’s North Atlantic core products increased significantly, even though there were fewer shrimps to sell. – Profit for the year was the highest in the company’s history and the fourth successive year with profits. – Debt was reduced to less than DKK 1 billion. This was a target which seemed almost impossible when we set it just over three years ago, but which has now been achieved. – Growth this year has also meant that we have created many new jobs; especially in Greenland, but also in our flatfish production in Koszalin. – The focus on higher sales prices this year has also meant higher landing prices for the 1,000 or more fishermen who supply us. If the results were only achieved in a single year, it would be OK. What makes it so remarkable is that it is the fourth consecutive year with growth. Today, Royal Greenland is a completely different company to what it was when, five years ago, it returned a loss of more than DKK 200 million, was burdened with massive debt and was rescued by the Greenland Home Rule through a significant capital injection. There are many people – especially outside Royal Greenland, and occasionally even amongst ourselves – who are not entirely aware that Royal Greenland has been radically transformed from something which barely functioned to a business which is now one of the leading lights in the international fishing industry. If you meet anyone who is unaware of this development, then make sure to tell them all about it! 2. Royal Greenland has a very meaningful strategy Our strategy, The North Atlantic Champion, dictates that we focus our efforts on the Greenland species and on the markets where these species are sold. Within these species, we must ensure that Royal Greenland has access to as big a proportion of world production as possible. It is in this light that our acquisition of all the shares in Upernavik Seafood should be seen. I very much hope that in 2015 we will also be able to secure access to an even bigger share of the global catch of our core species. The species caught around Greenland must be sold to those customers worldwide who value them most – and who are therefore willing to pay the highest prices. This issue of Navigatio includes a double interview with Royal Greenland’s sales director Bruno Olesen and our production director Lars Nielsen. The interview illustrates better than anything else the need to be ‘closest to the fish and closest to the customer’. The essence of The North Atlantic Champion is that it is only through holding a strong position within a single species that it is possible to develop both existing markets and brand new markets. As I have written about previously, it is our size that makes it possible to dispense with all the middlemen and in so doing ensure a direct connection between the fish on the one hand and customers and consumers on the other. In light of our history, our ownership and the ever-increasing global demand for quality seafood, I cannot see a more meaningful approach than the one we have: The North Atlantic Champion. 3. Based on our products, we can take Royal Greenland to ‘the next level’ Shortly after New Year, Royal Greenland’s management group (which in addition to Lars, Bruno and myself also includes CFO Nils Duus Kinnerup) met with our board chairman, Niels de Coninck-Smith. It was an informal meeting, and the theme can best be summed up thus: “Now that things are going so well, what can we do to make them not just a bit better, but much better?”. There is a big difference between a ‘bit better’ and ‘much better’. To do things a bit better is what we are all trying to do every single day we go to work, 2 NAVIGATIO NO. 1 • 2015
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