Fish processing company Valka has appointed a new director of sales.
Industry veteran Jon Birgir Gunnarsson has previously played a big role in the growth and globalisation of Icelandic Technology firms such as Marel, Controlant and Skaginn 3X.
The company is focusing on continued growth with increased global reach and is re-evaluating the set-up of the sales and marketing team.
New role of process development
Valka feels an increased need for in-depth processing know-how and engineering input, especially when setting up new or optimising current production processes. It is becoming increasingly common for seafood industry companies to not have large engineering departments.
To accelerate the development of processing concepts, for example, by collaborating with third parties, Valka has appointed Kristjan Hallvardsson as process development manager. Mr Hallvardsson has long-term hands-on and management experience from within Valka, as well as extensive knowledge from managing international R&D projects in earlier roles.
Founder and CEO awarded
On 27 February, Valka's focus on innovation and agility was acknowledged when the president of Iceland on behalf of Excellence Iceland awarded chief executive, Helgi Hjalmarsson, Iceland's Entrepreneur Manager of the Year 2020.
