Capital Markets Day 2021
The presentation is available in PDF on our presentations page.
Capital Markets Day 2021
Mowi is one of the world’s leading seafood companies, ranked as number one on both market capitalisation and sustainability. Mowi is also by far the world’s largest Atlantic salmon farmer with harvest volumes of 440,000 tonnes in 2020, equivalent to a global market share of approximately 20%. The company has a fully integrated value chain from roe to plate and also produces its own environmentally certified feed specifically designed for the Mowi salmon strain.
To further strengthen the company’s position, Mowi’s strategic trajectory towards 2025 will be focussed on four main objectives: growth throughout the value chain with particular focus on Mowi Farming, further cost savings across the group, greater sustainability, and capitalising on digitalisation and automation. All four objectives are of equal importance and apply throughout our value chain, and these priority areas will be the focus of our Capital Markets Day.
MEGATRENDS CONTINUE TO DRIVE DEMAND
One of the key foundations of the salmon farming industry is the favourable long-term demand outlook. The megatrends driving salmon demand are stronger than ever and driven by health trends, a growing need for more low-carbon footprint diets, and salmon’s ability to appeal to the wider population as highly versatile and suitable for almost any eating occasion. Mowi expects the continued strong growth in demand for Atlantic salmon to exceed supply growth in the next five years.
“Salmon is a scientifically proven natural superfood. It is also versatile and appeals to people of all ages with its highly appetising taste, look, texture and colour. In the coming years, I see countless opportunities for Mowi and we are working on many important initiatives that will further develop the company and bring it into the future,” Mowi CEO, Ivan Vindheim says.
MOWI FARMING WORKING ALONG THREE PILLARS – VOLUME GROWTH, COST AND SUSTAINABILITY
Mowi Farming is working along three pillars; volume, cost and sustainability. On sustainability Mowi has yet again being ranked the world’s most sustainable animal protein producer in the 2020 Coller FAIRR Protein Producer Index. Atlantic salmon is also ranked the most sustainably produced animal protein. On cost Mowi is consistently the number one or number two performer among peers in the regions in which the company operates. However, cost is still too high in absolute terms, particularly in some regions outside Norway. The cost variation between the regions is also too high. Thus, Mowi Farming will continue unabated with its work to address cost initiatives going forward.
Despite achieving record high volumes in 2020, Mowi Farming’s volume growth has been lagging behind the industry in the past few years. This is not satisfactory and will duly be addressed through various growth initiatives including increased investment in postsmolt. With the right measures in place we believe Mowi Farming has the intrinsic potential to grow well beyond 500,000 tonnes organically, using existing license capacity. Further to this Mowi Farming will also pursue farming growth through accretive acquisitions when this fits with its operational strategy. The main focus in Mowi Farming has been and will continue to be conventional farming. That said, we are monitoring developments in alternative technologies closely and may introduce such technologies when, and if, we find it timely and profitable.
“Although Mowi is uniquely positioned in the salmon farming industry, we have been lagging on growth and have over the past years grown by less than the industry. For an industry leader that is not satisfactory. Thus, re-igniting growth within Mowi Farming is a key priority going forward”, says Mowi CEO, Ivan Vindheim.
MOWI SALES & MARKETING CREATING CUSTOMER VALUE
In Sales & Marketing Mowi puts the customer at the core of everything it does through product innovation, branding and operational excellence to create customer value. Mowi will continue to develop new, innovative, high quality products that are easily accessible to its customers to keep pace with constantly evolving food habits.
“We will also continue in our long-term quest to de-commoditise the salmon category through our MOWI branding strategy. At the same time we must acknowledge that salmon is still mainly sold as a commodity subject to fierce competition – particularly in Europe. Thus, it is key to be a cost leader in this part of the value chain too, in order to attain a reasonable profit on our sales”, says Vindheim.
Mowi also has a clear ambition for growth in Sales & Marketing, albeit with focus on selected segments and markets.
MOWI FEED TO GROW ALONG WITH MOWI FARMING
Mowi’s latest addition, Mowi Feed, was established as late as in 2013. After commissioning the second feed mill in Kyleakin, Scotland in 2020 Mowi is now self-sufficient for feed in Europe. Feed is by far the most important cost component in farming. The strategy from here is to grow Mowi Feed along with Mowi Farming.
Mowi has unutilised capacity at its feed mill in Kyleakin, Scotland, and can add a new production line at the feed mill in Bjugn, Norway if needed with limited capital expenditure. Further to this the company will continue to streamline its operations to minimise cost and continue to produce sustainably sourced, high-performing quality feed specially designed for the Mowi salmon strain. Mowi will also continue to test alternative feed ingredients that provide the necessary nutrients for state-of-the-art salmon feed. The incorporation of such novel feed raw materials into Mowi Feed’s sourcing strategy will continue to be subject to satisfying our internal profitability, operational excellence and sustainability requirements.
MOWI 4.0 – TRANSFORMING OUR VALUE CHAIN THROUGH DIGITALISATION AND AUTOMATION
The fourth industrial revolution is upon us and offers Mowi significant opportunities. To leverage these opportunities, Mowi has developed its own Mowi 4.0 strategy to make the company more efficient by digitalising and automating the value chain from roe to plate.
The ongoing implementation of Smart Farming technologies in Mowi Farming is expected to have a positive impact not only on productivity and costs, but also on fish welfare and sustainability. Farming Norway leads the way within “Mowi 4.0 Smart Farming” and by 2025 expects to have completed the roll-out of Smart Farming technologies in its largest farming unit. By means of advanced imaging technology and intelligent sensors, Mowi will perform real-time monitoring of biomass, digital lice counting, autonomous feeding and tracking of fish welfare. Remote operation centres will leverage on these technological advances. A wealth of data combined with machine learning and artificial intelligence will enable Mowi to grow fish much more efficiently than today, and in an even more sustainable way. By constantly tracking fish behaviour and fish health, Mowi can be proactive instead of reactive when it comes to acting on biological issues. The organisation strongly believes Industry 4.0 technologies will offer much clearer scale advantages in the seawater phase than what is seen today.
In Mowi’s downstream operations digitalisation and automation also offer significant opportunities in its more than 30 factories all across the world. Fish processing is in many ways still very labour-intensive and in many cases improvements can be made simply by automation of manual work. However, the availability of advanced scanning technology also opens up for much more efficient production and more sophisticated product differentiation than seen today, and for selected customers Mowi will use blockchain solutions.