PRICE ANALYSIS: Stein Erik Hagen believes that food prices have reached their peak this time and hopes that they will decline slightly after last year’s strong growth. Photo: Gisle Oddstad / VG
This week, many of the world’s political and business leaders gather for the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. Stein Erik Hagen is a Davos veteran, but he won’t be traveling this year.
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- Orkla’s largest owner, Stein Erik Hagen, and Orkla will not attend this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos due to high costs.
- Daughter Caroline Hagen Kjos and husband Christer Kjos will continue to participate on behalf of the family business Canica.
- Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre will not attend the WEF this year, but Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, French President Emmanuel Macron and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg will be in attendance.
Sea-view
– When we got the big price increases that we saw last year, as a result of the increase in raw material prices, we sat down in Orkla and looked at all our cost items. Even head office costs. We cut everything that we didn’t have to prioritize and one of the things that went up in smoke was the trip to Davos. In an expensive period there is no priority task for Orkla, he explains to VG.
The costs of staying in Davos are not known, but for Orkla to join the WEF the costs are estimated at up to 4 million Norwegian kroner.
– Doesn’t that seem like a lot for a group that has a turnover of 50-60 billion a year?
– So we’re talking about a few million. When food prices rise so much, we must do everything we can to keep costs as low as possible. It’s the least we can do when customers feel it has become much more expensive to buy groceries.
He adds:
– All men go away, said the mouse who peed in the sea. A little here and a little there, he makes money.
HOPE: Hagen can’t promise lower food prices, but he hopes that happens. Photo: Bjørn Haugan / VG
Food price analysis
– It may appear that commodity prices are falling. Can you promise the Norwegian people that food prices will fall in 2024?
– We can hope so, after food prices have increased by more than 10% in the last year. There should at least be hope that the price run is over and that prices will stabilize and hopefully come down a bit, but it’s hard to say. Based on the current snapshot, I think it will be a while before we see prices increase.
He adds that recent years have taught us that framework conditions can change rapidly and that it is therefore difficult to say anything with absolute certainty.
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World leaders occupy Davos
The Norwegian Prime Minister is often in Davos during the WEF, but this year Jonas Gahr Støre will not come, but Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide will.
So do Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French President Emmanuel Macron, Børge Brende recently reported.
The former Norwegian foreign minister is the CEO of the WEF.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg will also go to Davos.
Sea-view
Hagen has been in Davos for twenty years. He was one of those who, during the Davos forum last year, said that the costs of participation are so high that one should consider giving up participation.
It only took a year and then the decision was made.
– It’s become too expensive. This year I pay about nine thousand crowns a day for a completely normal hotel room here in Davos. Plus there are travel and membership costs, Hagen said last year.
EXPENSIVE FOR A WEEK: Those who stayed at Hotel Seehof during the WEF last year had to pay around NOK 16,000 for one night. Photo: Bjørn Haugan / VG
VG showed that a room at the Seehof Hotel, where the traditional Norwegian dinner is organized during the WEF week, costs NOK 16,000 per day.
The week after the forum ended, the price dropped to NOK 3,500.
Hagen said last year he paid NOK 9,000 a day for his hotel room.
DAVOS VETERANS: Hagen and Johan H. Andresen pictured at last year’s Norwegian dinner, along with Andresen’s daughter, Katharina. Photo: Bjørn Haugan / VG
We moved early
Even if Orkla will discontinue its participation in Davos this year, the family company Canica will maintain its participation:
Daughter Caroline Hagen Kjos and husband Christer Kjos will participate, together with Canica Norway manager Jan Ole Stangeland.
The married couple were among the first to bring the family fortune to Switzerland, in 2009, where they currently live and Kjos is a manager in Canica, Switzerland.
Hagen said this summer that the family had tightened their belts, including through the sale of apartments in New York and London, a cottage in Kragerø and assets in a pair of planes, estimated to be worth several hundred million crowns.
FIXED INVENTORY FOR MANY YEARS: The garden photographed during the WEF in Davos last year. Photo: Bjørn Haugan / VG
– Even if you can afford it, even those of us who are privileged have to cut back when times get tough. I’ve always told my kids that we can’t just stock up and stock up. If you want something new, you have to cut something.
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Food power in Norway
Orkla reported revenue of well over NOK 58 billion in 2022 and profit before tax of NOK 7.3 billion.
Hagen’s family business, Canica, is Orkla’s largest owner, with about 25% of the shares.
In 2022, three billion NOK were paid to shareholders in dividends.
According to Kapital, the Hagen family’s assets are estimated at 31 billion Norwegian kroner. This makes the Norwegian family the 11th richest.
Orkla is Norway’s largest food and grocery manufacturer with well-known brands such as Stabburet, Toro, Grandiosa, Nidar, Jordan, Pierre Robert and Idun, where they occupy a leading position.
But the food producer king Hagen is severely beaten by those who sell the food produced by Orkla:
The owners of Rema 1000, the Reitan family, have assets of 59 billion Norwegian crowns, making them the third richest family in Norway.
Principal owner Johan H. Johannson of food giant Norgesgruppen, with Kiwi as its main discount chain, has a fortune of 51 billion Norwegian kroner, according to Kapital.
Sea-view
– Everything has its time
He says that, with respect to saving, they believe this justifies their participation.
– And this does not contribute to increasing costs in Orkla. They benefit greatly, among other things, from meeting food producers and other people they meet in Davos.
He may also participate in the future, but his adventure in Davos is probably over.
– Everything has its time and on Canica’s part I think it is right that the younger forces take over.
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Published: 01.24.11 at 18:20
2024-01-11 17:20:15
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