The collapse of the three biggest Icelandic banks and the continuing global financial trumoil has conspired to make life harder for Icelandic businesses.
However, outside the financial sector, collapses and lay-offs have been few to date, and some companies are actually thriving in these difficult times.
One of the world’s biggest generic drugs companies is the Iceland-based Actavis – a company which claims to be weathering the storm well. With operations in 40 countries and only one percent of its revenue coming from Iceland, Actavis is publicly optimistic, citing the fact that medicine is always in demand, and cheaper generic drugs may even become more popular in difficult economic times. The company is pushing ahead with increased capacity, including three new plants under construction in India as part of a much bigger Indian expansion.
The much-publicised weakness of the Icelandic krona has made visiting the country cheaper. Icelandic travel companies marketing themselves overseas have been having a bumper autumn.
Icelandair Group (owners of travel companies including Icelandair, Iceland’s biggest airline) has reported greatly increased off-peak interest in flights to Iceland. The company is also pleased that oil prices have reduced in recent weeks and that the vast majority of Icelandair Group’s business dealings are not conducted using the Icelandic krona.
On the street, tourist souvenirs have been selling well all year – in fact, never before have so many hand knitted jumpers, works of art or silly Viking fridge magnets been sold in Iceland.
One of Iceland’s biggest car dealers, Hekla is fighting against difficult domestic sales conditions by selling used cars abroad on its new English-language website www.nordiccarsale.is. Hekla is exporting quality used cars from Iceland with shipping costs included in the price.
Similarly, companies with significant operations overseas are increasingly able to take advantage of the exchange rate, as their fixed foreign currency contracts are now netting them more kronur than before.
One such company is the internet marketing and Search Engine Optimisation company, Nordic eMarketing. As Nordic eMarketing does a large amount of business in Scandinavia and the UK, the payments agreed in foreign currencies are yielding better returns when transferred into Icelandic kronur.
Although most companies in Iceland have had difficulty making and receiving foreign payments, most now report that normal operations are becoming easier again.
Audur Capital also deserves a mention as a rare financial company doing well in Iceland these days. The female-dominated financial securities company has built its business model on being debt-free and sustainable – which is seemingly the best way to weather a credit crisis.
Also can be a very good time to start to export icelandic product like hearth of lamb, politician,economists and ministers.
Kreppa gonna get us all! I can feel it. God save us!
Another feel good article saying everything is fine while we are borrowing and still getting deeper in debt. Wake up people and face the truth. Reality bites and stop living in fantasy land. What else are we going to export? Snow or hot water? Duhhhhh.
dear ingar, dont forgett fish, aluminium and polish workers, lol.
“icelandic product like hearth of lamb, politician,economists and ministers.”
Hmm, do those politicians,economists and ministers really have a market value? Normally, you actually have to pay someone for it if you want to export toxic waste…
:D
Björk weighs in on the financial crisis:
“Icelanders are highly educated in advanced sciences. We have ORF, one of the best biogenetics company in the world; Ossur, an artificial limb-maker; CCP, a computer games maker, and so on. We also have a lot of doctors and health professionals. Because of the hundreds of naturally hot pools all over the island and our (so far) almost untouched nature, Iceland could easily become one big lush spa where people could come and nurse their wounds and relax. If only the Government could put its money into supporting these companies rather than serving Alcoa and Rio Tinto.”
And a good point by Margaret Atwood quoted in the same story: “Debt—who owes what to whom, or to what, and how that debt gets paid—is a subject much larger than money. It has to do with our basic sense of fairness, a sense that is embedded in all of our exchanges with our fellow human beings. But at some point we stopped seeing debt as a simple personal relationship. The human factor became diminished. Maybe it had something to do with the sheer volume of transactions that computers have enabled. But what we seem to have forgotten is that the debtor is only one twin in a joined-at-the-hip pair, the other twin being the creditor. The whole edifice rests on a few fundamental principles that are inherent in us.”
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/the-ticker/2008/10/28/bjork-worries-for-iceland.html
santos
dear ingar, dont forgett fish, aluminium and polish workers, lol.
all the polish workers took the first Iceland express fligt back to poland the day after this started, so we can forget about them,
but the Britts here in Iceland dont seem to be going anywhere, also people from the scandinavian countrys, plenty of fish here, only because we dont exploit it .
I feel for the Icelanders watching their economy collapsing by the days and still putting brave faces and posititive comments. Their financial sectors and government administrations over the past boom years have put them in this miserable situation. Now the whole world have to come to resecue them, while the real culprits are still operating their financial and economic mess. You are such a small country but with peoples’ potential, stay focused on what you can do best and please do not listen to your nation’s managers to blame other countries for the current failed situation. Now the past honey moon years are over now and try to pick yourselves up, starting by tightening your belts and improve your real economies (fishing, energy, minerals, tourism etc), live by some and pay your debts by the rest. Wishing you the best of luck for the future
Iceland will come back for sure and stronger than ever, now is the time to invest in Icelands real estate market specialy for Americans,Iceland is less than half price now what a great oppertunety,i might look bleek righ now,but as a real estate investor from florida and have been to Iceland many times and loving that country our group is looking to invest over 8 millions ,and that is just the start,don’t give up on Iceland they have a lot of natural resorses to pull them throug,we have seen this many times before specaly in Florida all of this will pass in 2-3 years or less…