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Since its start-up in 2015, Holdbart has sold faulty goods and surplus goods for about NOK 2.6bn. In 2024 alone, Holdbart recorded a turnover of no less than NOK 850 million. The company also has a positive environmental impact on society and boasted waste of only 0.52% last year.

“The original motivation was to make money,” says Thor Johansen, who started the company with Trond J. Laeng in 2015. Both have extensive experience in the food industry.

Challenging regulations

During its first nine years, Holdbart has saved a staggering 49,000 tonnes of food from being thrown away. This is food that stores cannot sell for various reasons. The food is sold at reduced prices in one of Holdbart’s 20 stores.

“Many people probably think that the Holdbart concept is only about selling expired goods. That is wrong,” says Jo Hegg.

Jo Hegg is Holdbart’s relationship manager at Nordea and has worked closely with Trond and Thor from the early start.

“Overall, Holdbart is about challenging regulations and communication around the shelf life of food products,” he says.

According to Trond, this is exactly the type of customer understanding that makes Nordea one of their most important backers. Jo Hegg at Nordea elaborates:

“Sometimes a large consignment of goods worth several million Norwegian kroner arrives which they have to pay for,” he says.

“Then it’s important that I understand their business and trust that they can manage a loan in a good way.”

Serious consequences

The Holdbart adventure started with a container full of food on its way from Iceland to Norway.

“The supplier told me that the container would not arrive in time. And since most stores will not accept food that has expired, it had to be thrown away,” says Trond.

Then his mind began to race: "I'm a salesman, and for me, salesman is an honorary title. So I immediately thought that there had to be a better solution, and that I might even be able to make money from it,” he says.

Best-before date

The problem with the industry, as Trond and Thor see it, is that many manufacturers set an expiration date that is too short. Holdbart is not allowed to sell goods that have passed their use-by date, while best-before goods can also be sold after the expiry date. Because as Trond and Thor say:

"A bag of potato chips does not decide to go bad from one day to the next. "

Or put differently: "It’s incredibly bad luck when the package of one-million-year-old Himalayan salt expired last week," says Trond dryly.

Has been invaluable to the company

In 2015, Holdbart had 350 items – now they have passed 2,400.

“In the beginning, we had to call suppliers and ask if they had products they wanted to sell. Now they are the ones calling us,” says Thor.

And even though Holdbart does not necessarily have a secret recipe for success, Trond highlights one important factor:

“Interpersonal relationships are extremely important,” he states. “Irrespective of whether there is something you need to solve, a delivery that is difficult to process or the like, good relationships are the answer.”

 

The same applies to the relationship with the bank. According to Trond and Thor, Nordea and relationship manager Jo Hegg have been invaluable to the company. According to Jo Hegg this is an important part of the Nordea model.

“It is important for us to be able to offer a complete package to our customers. For example, Holdbart has a permanent adviser in addition to having access to our experts and a wide range of products and services.”

Strong faith in the future

Nine years after start-up, Holdbart now has 20 stores from Kristiansand in the south to Steinkjer in the north. And if we are to believe relationship manager Jo Hegg, the future prospects for Holdbart look very bright.

“They took environmental considerations into account at a very early stage and made it a cornerstone of the company. Through increased food safety, they save money and help reduce man-made emissions of greenhouse gases,” he says.

“It has given them a valuable head start now that companies have stricter requirements for operations. 

And as the salesman he is, Trond also has big thoughts about the future:

“We are always looking for new premises and areas where we can establish ourselves,” he says.

“As long as there is food waste and people who don’t mind eating perfectly good food at a reduced price, we will never give up.”