Under the management of strongman Johan Páll Joensen, Maru Seafood is placing its bets on customization by offering a viable variety of fresh, frozen, salted and smoked fish products

With fish processing facilities in three different locations and annual exports totaling 4,000 tonnes of whitefish products, Maru Seafood counts among the major players in the Faroese fishing industry. Arguably key to its success, the company’s sales and marketing approach highlights the ability to deliver, according to the demands and preferences of customers, a wide range of first class fish products, whether smoked, salted, frozen or fresh.

“Our strength lies in a very high ability to supply quality seafood products according to the needs and requirements of the customer,” said Johan Páll Joensen, Maru Seafood’s Managing Director.

“The way we’ve come to know the industry has made it possible for us to develop a customizing function, significant to both sales and customer service; but in order to satisfy every customer’s needs, we must constantly strive to maintain maximum flexibility in production schedules, from purchase of raw materials to delivery of finished goods. I think most customers value the high levels of adaptation allowed for in our system and we are pleased with that, although it may lead to somewhat awkward rearrangements at times.”

According to Mr Joensen, Maru Seafood annually purchases around 6,000 tonnes of groundfish harvested in the waters around the Faroe Islands for processing and trading. In part purchased directly from trawlers and longliners and in part from the Faroe Fish Market, the fish is handled at the company’s processing facilities located in Klaksvík, Eiði and Sørvágur.

A well-known figure: Since being established in 1998, Maru Seafood has processed salted cod, ling and saithe (coley) for export to Spain; likewise, in addition to a wide range of smoked seafood products, the company produces fresh and frozen haddock, saithe and other groundfish species for customers in the UK and continental Europe.

Employing around 75 people, the company’s informal corporate culture, said Mr Joensen, contributes to make the concept of customizability an overriding mode of operation.

“From frozen fillets to smoked portions,” he noted, “our selective and customizable product range offers great variety. Still, apart from producing in accordance with the Order Book, we forecast to a certain degree the nature and scope of upcoming orders. Because in order to run operations smoothly, effectively and profitably, you will have to be able to rely on some level of predictability; however, it seems the trading and processing systems we’ve got in place work extremely well to meet the particularities of customers.”

Another factor Mr Joensen pointed out as a customer-friendly feature of Maru Seafood, concerns the smallness of the company and its flat organisational structure.

“Bureaucracy is minimal here,” Mr Joensen said, “inasmuch as this company is small and administratively well trimmed. This is of course a great advantage when it comes to making quick decisions and responding timely to inquiries from customers or any other input. Our customers and business partners know who we are, and they enjoy easy and direct access to the people in charge. We like to make sure that all business communication runs smoothly, so that any issue that may occur can be solved without too much hassle. On a strategic level, this is one of the fundamentals we stick to.”

Without a doubt, some would say, Mr Joensen’s own personality plays an important part in the successful marketing of Maru Seafood’s fish products. A man with extensive industry experience, he has contacts and friends in many places.

In his spare time he serves as chairman of the Faroe Islands Employers Association as well as chairman of the board of directors of the Faroes’ largest bank, Føroya Banki, Mr Joensen may be quite the public person, but he is an even better known figure among fishing industry insiders. Link to company profile