The Findus Factory

Take a deep breath and think yourself back a few decades. At that time, this area was a hive of activity and the smell of fresh, salted, dried, fried, and smoked fish wedged itself in your nostrils. The Findus factory started production with frozen fish filets in 1952. And after a while they were producing fish fingers, fish balls, fish cakes, frozen cod, Norwegian perch, haddock and much more. Here the delicate raw ingredients were available nearly right outside the factory door, and with the advent of the home freezer at the end of the 1950s, the assortment of products grew, amongst other things they started producing fish fingers here in 1958. In its heyday there were over 1300 employees coming in and out of the factory door every single day. For a long time, Findus was Norway’s biggest fishing industry company, and played a significant role in the development of Hammerfest. But all fairy tales must come to an end, and so it was, that this factory closed in 2001. The factory buildings were later demolished and replaced with the monumental and beautiful Arctic cultural centre building. There you can find reminders of the Findus factory in the cinema room ‘Frityen’, the ‘fileten’ gallery or at the open-air theatre Frysa.