Runavík’s multifaceted gift and specialty shop Berglon, which is also a manufacturer and supplier of fishing rope for longliners, has increased its international sales and production over the past few years, according to managing owner Rúni Berg.
Fully owned by Berglon, the manufacturing and international sales division of the company is based in China, Mr. Berg noted, adding that the business model is proving both efficient and cost-effective.
“Back in the day we started manufacturing workwear in China together with Norwegian partners using a joint brand and that venture turned out a success for a number of years,” he said.
“Eventually we left the program as its market focus tended to shift more exclusively toward the offshore energy sector, which is really not our home ground.”
‘Something we like’
As it turned out, meanwhile, the experience of manufacturing in China was transferable and could successfully be applied to other products.
“We used to produce longline fishing ropes in the Faroe Islands for many years, using manual labor,” Mr. Berg said. “Over time, however, demand kept growing and so to fulfill that demand we realized that we would need a slightly different approach. In reality we were faced with the choice of either phasing out this part of the business or shifting the manufacturing base to a different location, such as China, which we then opted for. As a result, we’ve now been able to ramp up production and we’ve experienced growing sales to practically all regions and countries with longlining fisheries—the Faroe Islands, Norway, Iceland, Canada, Alaska and the northern areas of the Far East.”
As well as fishing rope, Berglon manufactures other fishing gear components including hook snoods and eel lures, as well as selling a wide array of related products and accessories such as mooring rope, buoys, fenders and more, for both commercial and sports fishing.
Mr. Berg added: “Providing gear for hook-and-line fishing is something that we’ve always been involved with, first locally and domestically and now, to a growing extent, internationally as well; it happens to be something we like very much to work with.”
