70 Years of Tradition

A Family of Fishermen

Eskja is a family business that has been one of the leading fishing companies in Iceland for 70 years. We are located in Eskifjörður, a charming seaside town in the eastern fjords of Iceland, and employ approximately 100 people. The company was originally founded on 8 May 1944 under the name Hraðfrystihús Eskifjarðar with the aim of strengthening the economy in the area surrounding Eskifjörður. We have a long tradition of responsible and respectful use of the fisheries around Iceland and are committed to minimising the environmental impact of our operations. Our longstanding policy has always been to deliver fresh, clean, high-quality products to the most demanding markets in the world.

The crew of Jón “blotto” - The vessel was owned by Jón Kjartansson hf., a limited liability company owned by the brothers Aðalsteinn Jónsson and Kristinn Jónsson. The prosperity of that company made it possible for the brothers to purchase the majority of the Eskifjörður Seafood Processing company.

Lilli and Palli on thin ice - Hólmanes was a fishing vessel owned by Eskifjörður Seafood Processing, the second vessel of the company to bear that name. Hólmanes fished for the company during the Arctic ocean enterprise in the seventies, from 1965 to 1968.

The good luck charm - The first fishing vessel of the Eskifjörður Seafood Processing Company was built in Norway and given the name Hólmanes. In the beginning it served it’s initial purpose, supplying fish to the on-shore processing plant, before taking part in the “herring era” adventures, which started around 1960 and lasted until 1968.

Organization

At Eskja, our management team is a skilled group of passionate people who draw upon their wealth of knowledge and hands-on experience of fishing in the North Atlantic.

Þorsteinn Kristjánsson

CEO

Þorsteinn Kristjánsson is the CEO of Eskja and has worked for the company for almost four decades. Prior to assuming the role of CEO in 2009, he was the chairman of the board of Eskja and had also worked as captain on all of the company’s vessels. Þorsteinn earned his captain's licence at the Reykjavík College of Navigation in 1976 and has decades of experience in the fishing industry.

Erna Þorsteinsdóttir

Chairman of the board

Erna Þorsteinsdóttir has served as the chairman of the board of Eskja since 2009. In 2016, she graduated from Bifröst University with a degree in business administration with emphasis on marketing. Prior to assuming the role of chairman of Eskja, Erna ran the fishing export company Fiskimið which in 2009 became a subsidiary of Eskja. The company is now called Eskja Sales & Export where Erna serves as CEO.

Páll Snorrason

Director of finance and operations

Páll Snorrason is Eskja's managing director of finance and operations. He graduated from the University of Iceland with a cand.oecon degree in 2004 and with an MBA degree from IESE in Barcelona in 2015. Páll became CFO of Eskja in 2006 and subsequently assumed the role of managing director of finance and operations. Before he worked for KMPG and as a specialist in corporate finance at Actavis Group.

Sigrún Ísaksdóttir

Office manager

Sigrún Ísaksdóttir is the office manager of Eskja. Prior to assuming her role at Eskja in 2018, she served as service director of Arion Bank's Egilsstaðir branch for 10 years. In 2005, Sigrún graduated as business administrator from the University of Akureyri. She also holds a master's degree in leadership and management from Bifröst University and is a certified financial adviser.

Daði Þorsteinsson

Fishery manager

Daði Þorsteinsson has served as Eskja's fishery manager since 2024. He is born and raised in Eskifjörður and lives there with his family. After graduating with a captain's licence at the Reykjavík College of Navigation in 1998 he worked as mate and substitute captain of Hólmaborg. He has served as captain on Aðalsteinn Jónsson since 2006. Daði has been with the company all his life and has worked there for more or less 35 years.

Benedikt Jóhannsson

Director of land-based processing

Benedikt Jóhannsson is the director of land-based processing at Eskja. He has decades of experience working with the company and started out as a deputy foreman in 1979. Since then he was worked many different jobs at Eskja, including serving as foreman, production manager and fisheries manager. Now he oversees and organises our land-based processing.

Haukur Jónsson

Director of meal and oil factory

Haukur Jónsson serves as the director of operations of Eskja's fishmeal and oil factory. He first came to work in Eskja's fishmeal and oil production in 1978 before he later became the head of the operation in 1996. He also a board member of the Icelandic Association of Fishmeal Manufacturers on behalf of the company.

Hlynur Ársælsson

Director of pelagic fish processing plant

Hlynur Ársælsson is the director of Eskja’s pelagic fish processing plant. He has decades of experience of working at sea and worked on all of Eskja’s vessels between 1991 and 2005. He then worked for Samherji in Africa for ten years before returning to Eskja in 2016 to serve as foreman in the company’s new pelagic fish processing plant. He subsequently assumed the role of director of the plant in 2017.

Tómas Valdimarsson

Head of maintenance

Tómas Valdimarsson is the head of maintenance at Eskja. Tómas graduated with a master in mechanical engineering in the year 1987 and has extensive experience both at sea and on land. Tómas was the regional manager for Hamar in the years 2001-2007. Then he worked on the freezer ship Aðalsteinn Jónsson, after which he went to Africa and worked there for two years on a freezer ship. Tómas started to work again for Eskja in 2016 in the pelagic processing factory. Tómas has held the head of maintenance at Eskja since the beginning of 2020.

Modern and Efficient Operations

We operate three vessels and our state-of-the-art processing facilities are among the most advanced in the North Atlantic. Our 7.000 m2 facilities in Eskifjörður are capable of processing 900 tons per day and are entirely run on Icelandic electricity that is 100% generated using renewable energy sources.

Our state-of-the-art facilities are among the most advanced in the North Atlantic

Eskja’s Equal Pay Policy

Eskja is firmly committed to a policy that is designed to ensure that all employees receive equal pay and enjoy equal terms of employment and rights for the same jobs or jobs of equal value, so that there is no gender-based pay gap within the company.

Aðalsteinn Jónsson

SU-11

Year: 2004
GRT: 4419 imperial tons
Tonnage: 2200 m3

Jón Kjartansson

SU-111

Year: 2003
GRT: 2424,3 imperial tons
Tonnage: 2170 m3

Guðrún Þorkelsdóttir

SU 211

Year: 1999
GRT: 1773 imperial tons
Tonnage: 1679 m3

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