NIB finances Danish Crown’s investment in slaughterhouse

NIB and Denmark’s food processing company Danish Crown A/S have signed a new loan agreement with a 10-year maturity, totalling DKK 340 million (EUR 46 million) for the construction of a cattle slaughterhouse in Holsted, Denmark.

The new facility will replace four existing facilities in other regions of Denmark and is expected to be fully operational by the summer 2014. With a capacity of 4,500 cattle slaughtered per week, the slaughterhouse in Holsted will be among the three largest in Europe. It will handle roughly half of the national cattle slaughtering.

“NIB’s long-standing customer, Danish Crown A/S, is constructing a sustainable high-capacity slaughterhouse that will help reduce both the production costs and the company’s ecological footprint,” says Henrik Normann, NIB President & CEO.

The new slaughterhouse will use the best available techniques as defined for the sector. The project is expected to achieve a 30% reduction in the consumption of energy and water compared to the four facilities the new slaughterhouse aims to replace. The slaughterhouse will use heat recovery installations for cooling areas and water heating. The facility’s layout for the process flow and the shell construction of the building will also contribute to better energy efficiency.

The facility will be equipped with a pre-treatment for the wastewater from the production zones. All the biological waste from the facility will be transported to an offsite biogas reactor to be converted into biogas. The total savings on a yearly basis for the project are calculated as 6,000 MWh. The corresponding reduction in CO2 emissions is around 1,800 tonnes a year.

Danish Crown is the world’s second largest abattoir and Europe’s largest meat processing company. The company is a cooperative owned by around 9,000 Danish pig and beef farmers.

NIB is an international financial institution owned by eight member countries: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden. The Bank finances private and public projects in and outside the member countries. NIB has the highest possible credit rating, AAA/Aaa, with the leading rating agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s.

For further information, please contact
Mr Vagn Lundhøj, Senior Manager Origination, at +358 10 618 0370,

Mr Dimitrijs Alehins, Senior Communications Specialist, at +358 10 618 0296,