Mayor’s Office (KRS): It was hot at times when prominent Kristiansand businessmen gathered in the office of the city’s new mayor, Matthias Bernander (H), to find ways to lower electricity prices.
– We have to order 10,000 yellow jackets and create campaigns for the Color Line, Garnerloka and Kivik, says Terje Markussen.
Plans procedures
They all gathered at the mayor’s office – from Peppes Pizza and Thon Hotels, to Start, Vipers, Aquarama and major industrial companies such as Glencore.
There was a common sense of injustice that businesses and individuals in Kristiansand were having to pay more for electricity than residents and competitors in other parts of the country.
Adequate.
Mayor Matthias Bernander and Deputy Mayor Charlotte Beckmann Finestad started by meeting the business community before a new meeting with the Agderbench in Storting later today.
-We need quick measures. This issue is very important for the region, and we feel marginalized. “We fear that the business world will turn away, and the situation is deadly,” Mathias Bernander said at the beginning of the meeting.
Fairness and lower prices
Managing Director Vibeke Holm-Rud at Aquarama Kristiansand AS says the company received an additional NOK five million in electricity expenses last year, and that the electricity subsidy is a drop in the ocean. – Out of NOK 9.5 million of electricity expenditure, electricity subsidy amounted to approximately NOK 500,000.
– The problem is that we cannot produce it at higher prices because this industry is very price sensitive.
Hotel manager Kristin Frygstad at Thon Hotel Kristiansand had something of the same image: – We are measured on the bottom line, and we are unable to raise prices. “So we’re heading into the red, and that has big ripple effects on new jobs,” Kristin Frigstad said.
Thus the description of the situation continued:
– If Jonas Jar Sture’s grandfather had run the Jotul factory here in Kristiansand, he would have closed its doors. We have to ask: is this fair? In my opinion, the Labor Party and the Center Party represent a crisis for our country, and they cannot be so ineffective. That’s why we must wear yellow vests and campaign against Molbulandit!
Loss of a million
The crisis meeting in the mayor’s office included everything from small stores to large industrial and service industry companies.
Owner and Managing Director Øyvind Holberg of ØHRN Invest AS owns Peppes Pizza franchises in Kristiansand and Arendal. He sees the money flowing in: – We have received an additional electricity bill of about a million kroner, which means that we are hanging by our fingertips on the edge of the table. This has nothing to do with war. When we look at the curve, prices rose at the same time as cable was being extended to England, said Holberg, who had no confidence that offshore wind would significantly improve the situation in the short term.
Even Vipers has taken a hit, General Manager Benedicte Løyland can say: – Our electricity costs have doubled, and we cannot increase prices if we want to be inclusive. But we also see that electricity prices affect ordinary people who may not have much. Now it will be less, Benedict told Weyland.
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