A new Danish–Norwegian partnership seeks to automate the fishing industry with state-of-the-art technology

Many fishery producers have great untapped automation potential. This can be cultivated and help address staffing challenges and cutthroat global competition in the process. At Aqua Nor, a major international fishery exhibition, visitors can meet a brand-new team seeking to help manufacturers enhance their degree of automation: Norway’s Melbu Systems and Scandinavia’s biggest automation firm, Danish BILA A/S, have joined forces to form a strong new team excelling in robotics, automation, engineering, and service.

Cutthroat competition with narrow margins, outdoing one’s competitors with optimised, smarter solutions is crucial worldwide. In Norway’s second-biggest industry, fishing, the level of production efficiency differs greatly, both onboard fishing vessels and at processing plants. The industry’s many SMEs in particular depend on a high level of manual labour. BILA A/S and Melbu Systems intend to change this scenario together.?

Melbu has in-depth knowledge of the fishing industry as a long-standing supplier of engineering, machinery, and service. With a strong presence throughout Norway, Melbu Systems can meets its customers needs and ensure high uptime and cost-effective production. BILA A/S has 30 years of experience in automating food production throughout northern Europe, including Norway. Together, the team offer a powerful combination of a deep sector insight into fish production as well as a vast array of automation technologies and production equipment. This gives fish producers the opportunity to top-tune their production processes.

"At Melbu Systems AS, we’re pleased to cooperate with BILA A/S. It also solidifies our position as a full-service supplier, and we look forward to many interesting projects together," says Einar Roger Pettersen, CEO, Melbu Systems.

Whereas Denmark and Sweden rank sixth and fifth respectively as the most automated countries in the world, Norway is 40+ on the world list with cautious growth, but remains below the global average for robotics proliferation, according to the International Federation of Robotics.

Fishing-industry decision-makers can meet the new team during the biggest fishing-industry trade fair in the Nordic region. The key people – Einar Roger Pettersen, CEO, Melbus Systems, and Morten Pedersen, BILA’s Sales Manager Norway – will be ready and waiting at stand E-402, Aqua Nor, in Trondheim Spektrum from 24–27 August.??They look forward to entering rewarding dialogue with exhibition visitors about automating the fishing industry.

Scandinavia’s biggest automation firm, BILA A/S, has a division in Norway, led by a Norwegian automation expert. Morten Pedersen is familiar with the challenges facing the industry every day, as he worked in the food industry for more than 30 years.

"Fishery production’s optimisation potential is easy to identify. For instance, filleting lines can be automated with machines and robots, thus addressing scarcity of manpower in the sparsely populated areas of northern Norway. The closing of Norway’s borders during the Covid-19 pandemic only exacerbated this problem and posed challenges for Norway's second largest export product: salmon," says Morten Pedersen, Sales Manager Norway. Twenty years have passed since the automation firm BILA A/S, headquartered in Denmark, delivered its first robot to the Norwegian salmon industry, and Morten Pedersen looks forward to engaging in rewarding dialogue with the fish producers at Aqua Nor.

About Melbu Systems

Melbu Systems AS is a supplier of smart solutions that increase profitability at the customer and aims to be known for its good service, quality, and reliability. Melbu Systems AS is a leading supplier of stainless steel processing equipment to the food industry, particularly fish farming, the fishing industry and fishing vessels. The product range also includes stainless steel building accessories.

The company’s products are sold all over the world. Its success is based on more than 40 years of experience in product development, production and sales, making Melbu Systems an important supplier of equipment and services to the food industry today.

Melbu supplies equipment to businesses such as Camaro Fiskeriselskap and Larsnes Mek, onboard SK-3151 ‘Nord-Fugl?y’.

About BILA A/S

BILA A/S was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in the town of Nyk?bing Mors, Denmark, but also has divisions in Svendborg, S?nderborg, Varde, Herning, Randers, Mariager, Aalborg and Vemmelev, as well as in Sweden and now Norway.?The company has around more than 500 employees and provides automation and production optimisation solutions, typically involving the use of industrial robots. The company supplies products to much of the world and has delivered more than 2,000 automation solutions to European and US markets in various industries.

Together, Melbu Systems and BILA A/S can help the fishing industry produce more efficiently and profitably.??