IMENCO continues to grow and buys the aqua technology company ESTRO. The company is incorporated into IMENCO Aqua and provides access to new products within fish welfare. As part of the expansion, IMENCO is also establishing a separate office in Bergen.
With this, Imenco Aqua consolidates its position within fish welfare and aquaculture and, through the acquisition of ESTRO, secures significant expertise in fish welfare and product development, as well as well-established products with SEANEST cleanerfish hide and recapture solutions.
SEANEST puts fish welfare for cleanerfish in focus, and the product is so far the only hide for cleanerfish that does not release significant amounts of plastic into the sea. The founders Espen Øvreeide and Trond Marøy started ESTRO back in 2018 and since then the company has delivered thousands of cleanerfish hide and recapture solutions in the SEANEST product series to satisfied customers in Norway, Scotland and Iceland, says Tommy Storsveen, General Manager at Imenco Aqua. Today, large quantities of cleaner fish are used to keep the lice population down in salmon farming. Lumpfish and wrasse are used as cleaning fish to combat salmon lice in farms, and work by the cleaning fish eating the lice on the skin of the salmon. This is thus a clean and biological de-lice method that is also gentle on the fish and increases fish welfare. Cleaner fish hides are crucial for the cleaner fish’s welfare and survival rate in a cage with salmon.
The UN Environment Program estimates that between 9 and 14 million tons of plastic end up in the sea every year. They also estimate that this figure will increase to 23-37 million tons by 2040, if action is not taken. – It is incredibly important that we who work in aquaculture take care of the sea and do not use products that release plastic into the sea. Here, ESTRO’s products add a completely new level of environmental aspects and solutions than those that dominate the market today, explains the Genereal Manager in Estro, Trond Marøy.
CEO Rune Bringedal in the IMENCO group is very satisfied with the acquisition, and he sees both synergies and opportunities with the incorporation of ESTRO in IMENCO Aqua. – The combination of a unique product portfolio, and highly competent employees, makes IMENCO Aqua the greatest challenger in the market for technology products for the aquaculture industry, Bringedal believes. He expects strong growth in this segment going forward.
– We are very happy to get more good products and not least new highly skilled colleagues to the aqua team , concludes Tommy Storsveen, General Manager of Imenco Aqua.
