SalMar entrepreneur Gustav Witzøe did not hold back when he built his new pad. The building has a utility floor space of almost 1,750m3, including a garage, private cinema, swimming pool and more.
Tucked away looking out to the ocean, on the west side of Frøya, on Mid-Norway’s coastline, Gustav Witzøe has moved into his new residence at Kverva, the home of which his holding company is also named.
This is where he grew up. The family ran both a farm and a shop here, according to writer Otto Ulseth in Witzøe’s authorized biography “Happy Salmon – the histtory of SalMar”. They started land trading not far away, in Bustvika, where a scheduled boat dock was also built in addition to a post office and call centre. The merchant family Witzøe also had their own taxi service for a period of time.
Business minded
For the past three decades, however, the business spirit of the family has revolved around SalMar. It was a bankruptcy estate, consisting of a salmon licence and a processing plant, which Gustav Witzøe bought in 1991. Since then, Witzøe has developed it into a salmon farming titan with a market capitalisation of EUR 5 billion.
SalMar has been a formidable dividend machine, especially in recent years. Last year, the company handed out EUR 246 million in cash to its owners. EUR 132.5 million of this ended up in the coffers of Witzøe-controlled Kverva Industrier.
The entrepreneur, who has since also taken over the job of CEO of SalMar, moved his cash dividends via the holding company Kverva into a number of seafood-related business. However, some of this has been passed on to finance the construction of a new private residence. The home is also built just west of SalMar’s huge landing facility, InnovaMar.
Cinema and swimming pool
However, the new splendour building is not exclusively for its own use. Significant parts of the house will be used as a representative residence for the companies in the SalMar sphere.
According to architect Are Meinich, Gustav Witzøe lives on an area of about 350m3. His son, Gustav Magnar Jr., has received his own part of the 200m3 home, which he can use when he is at home at Frøya. It is also equipped with a separate boardroom.
“In addition, there will be a private cinema, as well as a swimming pool and wellness area downstairs. The ground floor will contain all the main functions of the house, while the top floor is intended for representation and events,” Meinich told Adresseavisen.
