Falling after another disappointment: – I think people are a bit fed up

– The operating result was disappointing, there is no doubt about that. If you look at Scotland as a whole with both the farming and Freshwater segments, the operational operating profit is minus DKK 10 million, and they shouldn’t have had that, says Nordby.

He points out that the figures include some one-off costs, including as a result of a feeding fleet that sank, fish mortality in the quarter, as well as improvements at the smolt plant in Applecross in Scotland.

– I think people are a bit tired of the fact that it is once again Scotland that means that you do not get the result you had hoped for, he says.

In addition, the company is making a change in the guidance on the release of salmon smolt this year. In the Faroe Islands, the number of smolt to be released into the sea is reduced from 17.8 to 17 million, while in Scotland it is reduced from 9.3 to 8.2 million.

– There are two reasons for this. In the Faroe Islands, 800,000 smolts will be moved from the fourth quarter of 2024 to the first quarter of 2025, because the company experiences better survival of the fish when it is released at the coldest sea temperatures, rather than in December when the temperatures become colder until February and March. In Scotland, the issue is that the development of the smolt plant there has taken longer with various design errors, including that the cooling plant has not functioned optimally, says Nordby.

Beat expectations

In advance, the analysts expected on average that Bakkafrost would deliver an operational operating result of NOK 695 million in the first quarter.

The company had previously notified the market that it slaughtered 21,600 tonnes of salmon in the first quarter, divided into 14,300 tonnes from the Faroe Islands and 7,300 tonnes from Scotland.

According to the quarterly report, expected slaughter volumes for 2024 are maintained at 91,000 tonnes. The volumes are divided into 66,000 tonnes from the Faroe Islands and 25,000 tonnes from Scotland.

Scotland has long been a farming region which has proved particularly challenging for Bakkafrost. As a result of the biological challenges that tend to present themselves over the summer and into the autumn, the company plans to slaughter between 70 and 75 percent of the Scottish volumes during the first and second quarter, the company writes in the report.