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Turning South, Bergiđ Style |
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Archives -
2007 Archive
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Written by B. Tyril
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Monday, 21 May 2007 |
Drawing on the expert knowledge of experienced skippers and trawlermen — and with business growth solid as seacliff — Bergiđ Fishing Gear is working to attract foreign vessels to try its specialty bottom trawls.
The inherent advantage of being centrally situated in the middle of the North Atlantic should be more fully utilized by foreigners and highlighted by the Faroese, according to Bergiđ Fishing Gear. The bottom trawl specialist located in the small town of Hvalba, close to Tvöroyri, on the southernmost Faroe island of Suđuroy, is growing at high speed while at the same time looking to extend its market reach.
Scrambling to construct its new production hall without losing too much valuable time during transition — inasmuch as building implies demolition of the present premises and temporary moving — Bergiđ is working with a new sales and marketing initiative aimed at both Faroese and foreign trawler operators and skippers.
Said director and partner Jógvan Thomsen: “We want to use this period to plan ahead effectively for everything from procurement to promotion, because we expect operations will be greatly enhanced with our new building in place. So we want to make good use of that increased capacity and we have no time to lose.
“We are hoping to succeed in luring some foreign vessels to come our way and see what we can offer… Whether they’ll be fishing up in the Barents Sea or off the Azores down in the Mid Atlantic isn’t the real issue. It’s the fact that our location is not far from where they’ll be steaming and we can offer top quality service and world class fishing gear.”
With a special strength in bottom trawls, Bergiđ offers a wide range of trawls, accessories and spare parts, including trawl doors, nets, wires, ropes and twines.
The company’s customers are mainly Faroese fishing vessels including a dozen so-called deep sea trawlers, yet foreign customers are coming in as well, from neighboring countries and even from as far as Portugal.
Some of the core values employed by Bergiđ are embedded in the company’s name, which literally means ‘the seacliff’ — a powerful concept in Faroese, often used to allude to trust, stability or strength, and often identified with local Hvalba culture. “Our customers tend to be very loyal and my guess is that this has something to do with the kind of service they get here. We have in fact extended our product range to offer a more comprehensive package with more trawl models to chose from and entire solutions if necessary.”
Mr Thomsen’s father Dan Thomsen together with his family purchased the shares of Bergiđ in the mid 1990s, keeping a strong focus on bottom trawls including specialty trawls for use in deep sea trawling. Since then the business has become increasingly successful with sales doubling over the last couple of years.
Good craftsmanship has paramount importance according to Mr Thomsen senior, the production manager. With 40 years of experience at sea as a trawlerman, he is highly respected for his expertise.
The number staff at Bergiđ usually varies between half a dozen and a dozen, depending on the availability of some of them, who are also fishermen.
Moving into its new two-story building will afford the company considerable savings of time and allow for much more convenient work, Mr Thomsen said.
“We’ll be able to work in three parallel tracks rather than one; that means getting our jobs done much faster, to the benefit of the customer, which in turn means we can get much more done over time.”
According to Mr Thomsen, the new building will offer much more efficient and effective use of space, including manufacturing and repair work and storage logistics, and more mechanization through winches, powerblocks, cranes, and trolleys.
“We’re facing a little revolution. But as I’ve said more than once, we need the extra space to accommodate a growing business—for the net loft, the storage and the offices. The new building will give us 1600 square meters of working space and it’s bound to make a difference. Whereas now, for instance, we have to use the quayside area outside to spread a trawl net, we’ll be quite independent of weather conditions and eventualities in the new premises.”
Link to pdf presentation...
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