Published in Gudbrandsdølen Dagningen (GD.no) 07.11.23, written by Kjersti Haugtrø.

The company Aquatiq Sense AS has an address in Lillehammer, Norway, but the nine employees can in practice be found scattered all over the country.

- Even though we have locations all over Norway and are established in such distant regions as Australia, Chile, Canada and Scotland, everyone in the organization is aware of where we belong and where we come from. We are proud to be a Lillehammer office, says managing director Heidi Camilla Sagen-Ohren.

She is based in Trondheim and has worked for several years in the Aquatiq group, which was founded by Elvin Bugge in Lillehammer in 2001. Today, the parent company has six subsidiaries in Norway, and it is Elvin's son Eirik who has taken over as top manager.

The company has a total of 29 companies including the ownership structure in the subsidiary Aqua Pharma Group AS. The company is established with its own units in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Scotland, Canada, USA, Chile, Australia and New Zealand.

One of the newest subsidiaries is thus led by Sagen-Ohren. It was established in 2019 after she launched a new idea.

The basic idea was to establish a digital analysis tool to monitor results in the food industry, to which Aquatiq supplied products and services.

- Hit the market

- We saw that the industry had a need for digital solutions. Heidi Camilla came up with the idea and we got behind it and let her manage the company. We hit a market that was ready for such a solution, and then it's been one thing after another, says CEO Eirik Bugge.

For the past three years, the arrows have pointed steadily upwards for Aquatiq Sense. In 2022, the company had 14 million in turnover, which was a doubling from the previous year. Operating profit ended in 2022 at NOK 1.55 million kroners.

The results have brought the company onto Dagens Næringsliv's gazelle list for 2023.

The criteria for becoming a Gazelle company:

• Delivered approved financial statements.
• At least doubled turnover over four years.
• Turnover of over one million Norwegian kroner in the first year.
• Positive total operating result.
• Avoided negative growth.
• Been a joint-stock company.

The digital solution, called Aquatiq Biomap, collects data from various systems at food manufacturers, to provide better control over cleaning, production and the situation in the factory.

In addition, the company has expanded its business to assist food manufacturers with washing and resetting after challenges with, for example, fungal and bacterial growth. That service is known in the technical language as Pathogen Management.

Finally, the company also offers services within land-based farming.

Throughout, the new company benefits from the expertise of the five other subsidiaries that deal with hygiene systems, chemical solutions and consultancy services which all contribute to increased food safety for the food industry, whether it be meat, fish and vegetable producers.

- It is all these things together that have led to the company's healthy growth and why we have succeeded together. We work a lot across different areas and help each other, says Bugge.

The systems that the company supplies are international, and they sell to customers both far and near, such as New Zealand, France, Turkey and Poland.

- It is a huge international market, and it is perhaps a bit peculiar considering that we are from Lillehammer, says Bugge.

Passion

Managing Director Sagen-Ohren says they are growing in all three areas they work within, but it is land-based aquaculture that is gaining the most momentum.

- We hired our first employee in May 2021, and by autumn, we were fully booked and soon hired another person. It has been a lot of work, but it's great to have skilled professionals with me. We couldn't have done it without the parent company or the other subsidiaries, she says.

Both are thrilled that the new company has made it onto the Gazelle list.

- We are all passionately committed to this, so of course, it's fun to succeed. It's not just the numbers that define success, but they do illustrate the work that has been done, says Bugge.

He is proud that the group continues with the strategy of growing beyond Norway's borders.

- International expansion has been the focus since I joined in 2020. It's going the way we want. It's both exciting and challenging to encounter other cultures and markets we haven't been in before. There's a lot of learning in that, that's how you get up and ahead, he says.