Bluegrove Financial Statements 2020: Investing in growth

During 2020, aquatech company Bluegrove AS experienced growth in spite of the many obstacles that materialized as a result of the global pandemic and policy makers’ response to the ongoing crisis.

Growth was evident in several areas. Strong existing customer relationships and new customer acquisitions resulted in a group revenue of NOK 21,055,119. The group’s pro forma revenue came in NOK 22,936,688 as a result of ‘locked-box’ settlements on January 1st 2020 of the acquisitions of Sealab and Sensomar.

Staff numbers also increased during the year, with the group and its subsidiaries CageEye, NorseAqua and Sealab employing 26 employees in Norway and additional team members working abroad from across 14 countries in 2020.

Research and development activities were expanded during the year thanks to solid support from existing and new long-term shareholders whose firm commitment to innovation is welcomed by the group.

“Bluegrove was still at a pre-revenue stage in 2020, which meant we were investing more in people, technology and growth than we were bringing in from sales. This is in line with our business plan, which is backed by solid, long-term investors,” said Bendik S. Søvegjarto, CEO, Bluegrove.

The investment in research and development, collaborations with farming partners, significant developments of commercial solutions and in other growth initiatives resulted in a pre-tax result of NOK -44,367,983 in 2020 and a pro forma pre-tax result of NOK -58,005,785. 

The final result was also affected by one-off costs in relation to the integration of Bluegrove’s subsidiaries in a manner that is already delivering synergies at many levels. This process was part of a restructuring that included the launch of Bluegrove as the group parent company, changes to the supervisory board, and the operational move in which hardware production was consolidated in the Terråk facility.

Cooperation with Innovation Norway was strengthened, both at the R&D level and at a strategic level where the joint efforts have since helped the company establish a close relationship with and secure financial support from the European Commission.

“Our achievements during 2020 created a solid foundation for accelerating growth and for further research and development in areas that will continue to improve the lives of both fish, farmers, consumers and the environment,” said Søvegjarto.