In the large white building in the eastern district of Stavanger, there has been a thriving environment for small start-ups and entrepreneurs in recent years. For NOK 3,000 including electricity a month, they have been given their own space and access to common areas. But with today’s electricity prices, this no longer works. Founder and owner of Innovation Dock, Nils Henrik Stokke, has had to terminate all the tenants in the building. The electricity costs are too high. Photo: Ole Andreas Bø / news – We lose several thousand kroner every day. If the building is operational in November, we are talking about several hundred thousand in the red just for that month, says owner of Innovation Dock, Nils Henrik Stokke. They have built up an environment in Stavanger to help start-ups get started by, among other things, offering cheap rent. 28 small businesses have space there now. – This building has created hundreds of jobs in recent years. What starts as a business with one or two employees grows to ten people. Then they move out and become 20 to 30 employees. We have many examples of that. Looking for new premises Photographer Damir Grskovic is one of the entrepreneurs who doesn’t know what to do now. He, like the rest of the tenants in the building, must move out by the end of November. Photographer Damir Grskovic hopes he will be able to find new premises that are as good as the ones he has now. Photo: Åse Karin Hansen / news – It is difficult to find good space at a good price. If we want a place like this, then we have to pay a lot more. It is not that easy, says Grskovic. – Couldn’t you pay more in rent to cover the electricity costs? – We have been told that the rent would then be NOK 20,000 instead of NOK 3,000. We cannot afford that. On the first floor, the organic bakery Jakobs Brød has established itself. They pay the electricity for the baking oven, while the rest of the electricity consumption is included in the rent. – I have experienced many crises, but this is clearly the toughest, says owner and baker Jakob Philipsen. Need help to pay the electricity bill He already pays NOK 30,000 a month in electricity. Last year he had a turnover of NOK 4 million. The profit was NOK 12,000. – The bank laughed at me. Philipsen has already raised prices by 10 percent. He imagines that he will have to raise prices once more, and fears that his goods will be too expensive for customers. – I’m trying to find another venue. It will be difficult if the electricity bill is NOK 60,000 a month. Then the bread will cost around NOK 150-200. The question is whether it can be done. Mayoral candidate for the Conservative Party in Stavanger Sissel Hegdal Knutsen. Photo: Stavanger municipality Opposition politician and mayoral candidate for the Conservative Party in Stavanger, Sissel Hegdal Knutsen believes that the municipality must step in and help the entrepreneurial community. She will raise the matter in the chairmanship. – We must look for targeted local measures that hit those who are in a vulnerable start-up phase. We cannot wait for the state to spend forever investigating solutions and not come up with an electricity package for business. She fears that the environment for starting new businesses will disappear from Stavanger. – We have worked for a long time to create an entrepreneurial environment that Innovation Dock stands for, and which has produced great results. Getting feedback that they have to move out and that the environment is deteriorating is serious. It shows the dramatic nature of the situation with electricity prices. Jobloop is based in the Innovation Dock building. They offer training in programming in collaboration with Nav. First at the house, and then six months in practice in a company. Many get jobs afterwards. Photo: Åse Karin Hansen / news According to Stokke, the company is now moving to Trondheim and investing there where the electricity price is much lower. Stavanger is in the region where the electricity price is the highest in Norway. – During the pandemic, we had action on a conveyor belt. It worked. Measures will not affect everyone, but something must be done.
ttn-69
28 entrepreneurs have to move out of their offices due to high electricity prices – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
