This summer, in parallel with fish processing, the fish processing company JSC “Brivais vilnis” has started a new direction of activity – freezing berries, informed the chairman of the board Arnolds Babris.
He said the company does not freeze fish during the summer months due to seasonality. To prevent the freezer from standing empty and the freezer chambers from being loaded, the company has decided to freeze the berries in the summer. All necessary documentation and certification, including for handling organic products, have been arranged for this purpose.
Babris added that in the autumn it is planned to install a new technological equipment for sorting frozen berries in the premises of the freezer. “Brivais vilnis” berries are planned to be frozen only in summer, when they are also available in Latvian nature. Meanwhile, in the winter, as usual in other years, the company will continue to store fish in freezers. Thus, the infrastructure will be more efficiently loaded.
The company has also attracted cooperation partners for the sale of frozen berries, therefore it is not worried about the possibility of sales. “We will provide the industrial platform ourselves, but those who sell and supply these products to others have already been found,” he said. The “free wave” does not preclude the start of further berry processing in the future.
He said that in the direction of the main activity – canning – “Free Wave” continues to develop. This year, the company has launched new types of products – fried sprat in carrot sauce and fried sprat in curry-carrot sauce. Another novelty of the company – salmon pate – will also be available in the retail chain “Rimi”. It is also planned to release grilled salmon in a package with a transparent lid. “Despite the large volume of orders, we are looking in the direction of innovation so as not to stand still in development,” he said.
Commenting on the financial results of “Free Wave”, Babris said that the company’s turnover has increased in the first half of this year, but the exact amount of growth will be known later. The first six months are also closed with a profit.
According to Babra, due to the crisis in the industry in the last five years, the number of fishing companies in Latvia has decreased by two thirds due to the Russian embargo. As a result, the industry has redistributed orders and currently Latvian fisheries companies have more orders than they can produce.
The turnover of the “free wave” in 2018 was 7.5 million euros, which is 10.2% more than a year earlier, while the company’s losses decreased 2.9 times – to 386,238 euros. The company’s 2019 results have not yet been made public.
The company’s largest shareholder is “Our Investment Fund”, whose members are Arnolds Babris (49.79%), Chairman of the Board of “Brivā viļņa”, and Māris Trankalis, CEO of the company (50.21%).
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