Along with supporting the growth of its PURE salmon peptide business, the Hirtshals site, located 371km North West of Copenhagen, is expected to increase production of its Salmigo range designed for the pet food segment.
“Hirtshals, Denmark, is an important gateway for salmon into Europe with local volumes growing substantially year-on-year,” says Stig Petersen, Biomega’s CEO. “We are partnering with key local suppliers of high-quality fresh salmon parts.
Biomega has received tremendous support from the local authorities, Hjørring municipality and Hirtshals Harbor administration for the development of the project.
“We are delighted to announce this strategic move, involving a double-digit million Euro investment in a brand-new facility, to support our growth plans in premium human and petfood nutrition applications.”
Change at the top
Biomega are biorefinery specialists that employ an enzymatic hydrolysis process to produce salmon oils, hydrolysed salmon proteins and premium salmon meal, that are used in the sports nutrition and nutraceutical sectors. The firm currently own four patents for this continuous biorefining process.
The firm recently had a change of management, appointing Stig Victor Petersen as its new Chief Executive Officer in August last year, replacing outgoing CEO, Sten Estrup, who becomes the Chair of the Board at Biomega.
The firm’s flagship biorefinery facility located on the island of Sotra near Bergen was also the subject of a recent upgrade that increased production of its salmon-derived premium food grade ingredients.
“Biomega has demonstrated significant growth in the past couple of years, and we have expanded our team considerably as a result,” adds Petersen.
“The opportunities for our salmon peptides and oils are extensive and, alongside our sales in the premium petfood segment, we can now focus on human nutrition.
“We are working with a number of customers to commercialise health and nutrition concepts supported by consumer market trends and we’re excited by the opportunity that Hirtshals brings to expand our business.”
Having firmly established its presence in the premium petfood sector, the firm now look towards transferring the health benefits of salmon peptides and omega-3 fatty acids that include weight management, promotion of healthy cholesterol levels and improvements to bone and joint strength.
Its premium Salmon Oil product includes up to 15% of Omega-3 and Omega-6 and is suitable for inclusion in personal care products and functional food supplements. The oil also contains astaxanthin, a natural antioxidant.
Biomega recently made available a whitepaper discussing how bioactive salmon peptides could help to manage weight and minimise the risk factors associated with human obesity.
Funding the expansion
AMERRA Capital Management, which acquired Biomega in 2017, invested additional capital for the execution of this project alongside the original founders of Biomega.
“This is a transformational step for Biomega and an important piece of our original investment thesis,” adds AMERRA’s Manuel Ferreira Gomes.
“We are further encouraged by the participation of the management team in this investment round, and by the Althelia Sustainable Ocean Fund, managed by Mirova.”
Simon Dent from Mirova, a sustainable investment firm, added, “We are delighted to make an investment in Biomega to help expand their business and deliver circular economy solutions to raw material management in seafood supply chains, thereby transferring this raw material into high value food products through biorefining.”