Bureau Veritas is an international certification agency headquartered in France. They were founded in 1828 in Antwerp, Belgium. Since the beginning, the purpose of the company was the classification of marine vessels. “Our core business is classification, but today is only about 8% of our revenue. These days after a lot of acquisitions we have about 80,000 employees worldwide and our major areas of business are certification and inspection of commodities,” stated Kaare Nicoali Haug, Marine Manager and Administrative Director of Bureau Veritas.

Bureau Veritas is a worldwide business; however, in Norway, it has a limited reach. “We have a fairly nice portfolio of vessels, with connections to about 150 vessels of Norwegian ownership,” stated Kaare Nicolai Haug. Their business in the country is expanding, nonetheless, with Bureau Veritas having an inspection section for offshore equipment in Stavanger. They are establishing an office in Trondheim to focus on the fish farms industry as well, ready to certificate fish health and sustainability of the farms.

Bureau Veritas is confident on its position in the market because of the quality of their services. “The human capital is our main value in the company and what we sell is our integrity and trust. Of course, we have a broad network of laboratories for the analysis of products and equipment. Having these available makes it easy for us to check the samples and get a quick reply,” highlighted the Marine Manager.

The company is very conscious of regulations and requirements and it is proud of its own commitments. “In Norway we have been certified as an ISO 14000 ourselves, so we are fulfilling the environmental requirements, as well as ISO 45000, which is regarding health and safety,” pointed the Administrative Director of Bureau Veritas.

This new office in Trondheim became a necessity as Bureau Veritas gained Mowi as a client. “There is also another large client, which is why we are hiring two new auditors, because we are having two of the largest fish farm companies in Norway as clients,” declared the Marine Manager of Bureau Veritas. The company has set itself firmly in the Norwegian market as it is now the largest ASC certification provider.