Turned COVID-19 layoffs into an infection control company

‘The loan from Innovation Norway enabled us to get started. It was absolutely crucial,’ says Leif-Jarle Aure, Chair of the Board at Innovern.

At the time, Sykkylven had one of the highest unemployment rates of any municipality in Norway.

‘Business here in Sykkylven is built around the manufacturing industry, with furniture production by far the most important sector. When several manufacturers had to close temporarily, people were laid off in large numbers,’ says Aure.

Amatec, which supplies machinery and production equipment to industry, quickly realised that the world would need large quantities of personal protective equipment. Together with several other local partners, they acted swiftly, and on 25 March they founded Innovern, with the initial goal of producing surgical face masks.

‘When the coronavirus first hit, Norway was heavily dependent on imports of personal protective equipment, including from China. And since the whole world needed this equipment at the same time, the idea was to produce more of it ourselves,’ says Kari-Anne Lade Gjørvad, client advisor at Innovation Norway.

According to her, there were many initiatives across the country, but we decided to back Innovern because the company had expertise from relevant professional communities in furniture manufacturing and industrial machinery, as well as access to available production facilities. We quickly recognised the potential to create new jobs.

‘Our local community has a high level of expertise in automation, and automating face mask production was one of the cornerstones on which the company was founded,’ Aure explains.

The government’s ambition to establish domestic production of personal protective equipment was also recognised. The Prime Minister visited the company and cut the ribbon.

‘It has been a successful project that has attracted a great deal of attention and received coverage in both local and national media,’ says Gjørvad.

According to Gjørvad, the Innovern case was a strong example of how we can work quickly across departments. Two weeks after receiving the application, we offered the company a loan on favourable terms, with no interest payable for one year.

‘It was a very exciting case to work on. We brought together expertise from across our offices, including colleagues in Oslo with expertise in healthcare,’ she says.

Innovern also secured an agreement with the Norwegian Hospital Procurement Trust for the purchase of 20 million face masks. Aure makes it clear that without this order and the loan financing from Innovation Norway, they would not have been able to get the company up and running.

‘Innovation Norway gave us invaluable support as we got the company off the ground,’ says the chair.

He firmly believes that what was a difficult situation during the pandemic, with furloughs and unemployment, laid the foundations for a sustainable and innovative company. The situation across Sykkylven is now very different from what it was in March 2020.

‘It went from being a crisis for the entire municipality to a real success story: from having one of the highest unemployment rates in the country to around 150 job vacancies. As someone who was born and raised in Sykkylven, I find that particularly gratifying,’ says Gjørvad.

And the company is planning for further growth.

‘Our production is becoming increasingly automated, and we are discussing whether to expand into more types of infection control equipment,’ says Aure.