History & Milestones

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More than 35 years in which Billund Aquaculture has led initiatives of the most diverse sizes around the world, reflecting in each one of them its stamp characterized by the perfection and determination to be the best in its area.
Born in Denmark as an offshoot of an eel producer, our company was founded in 1986, back when RAS (Recirculated Aquaculture Systems) was a practically unknown technology. But thanks to the innovative and visionary spirit of our leaders, Billund has become a pioneer in the development of sustainable aquaculture all over the world.
In the nineties, our company strongly ramped-up its activities in Asia (mainly in Taiwan, Korea, Thailand and China) due to the eel production boom, which lasted around seven years. After some ups and downs, we then opened the company up to new markets and species, a change that would end up being a key turning point for us. This is how the first recirculation fish farm for salmon in Chile began its operations, which was quite a novelty for the then budding Chilean industry.
More contracts were signed after this project, leading us to seek business representation in Chile, followed by the opening of the first ever branch of Billund Aquaculture in a foreign nation in 2005.
After some serious legwork, in 2010 our company managed to enter Norway, an industry that was farming salmon the conventional way. They were known for their highly efficient use of water, but always from an open flow standpoint.
Changing regulations in 2011 posed a challenge in terms of optimizing the use of fresh water, opening the doors for RAS and leading fish farmers to review their operations and decide to invest in alternative farming technologies that differed from the way they had done things until that point.
The first major milestone in that country took place in 2013, when the nation’s largest project ever was constructed: Belsvik, by Lerøy Midnør. It would consist of eleven recirculation systems to produce 14 million 90-gram Atlantic Salmon smolts. This represented the company’s consolidation in Norway, as Belsvik was the first large scale plant opened in the country.

Thanks to all of these advancements, our company has learned how to successfully combine improvements on existing technology with impressive feats of engineering, turning us into a global brand found in 30 countries.

New Structure
A new chapter for our company began in 2017, when Broodstock Capital, a Norwegian investment fund specializing in aquaculture-fishery companies, decided to partner with Billund Aquaculture to strengthen the company’s leading position in the growing RAS market.
In this partnership, Broodstock provided the capital needed to give our customers exactly what they need, including a long-term industrial perspective and specific expertise in the sector, which represents an enormous business benefit for Billund.
A Norwegian investment group took a major stake in the Billund Aquaculture Group. With its new shareholders, Billund's founders, the Sørensen family, aims to tap into new opportunities and address demand for the growing RAS market.
This new ownership puts Billund Aquaculture in a very strong long-term financial position that will help keep the company at the forefront of the global market for the development of large-scale RAS projects.
 
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