- I'm surprised they aren't better informed.
This is what Port Director Thomas Haber Borch, Port of Aarhus, said the day after it emerged that both Salling Group and Arla are against a port expansion. This surprises the Port Director, who had expected the exact opposite.
- I had a clear expectation of support from the large companies that depend on getting goods through the Port of Aarhus. The fact that some of the companies are now coming out and opposing the port expansion is, to me, an expression that they are not properly involved in the project, he tells TV2 Østjylland.
The message to Aarhus Municipality from the two giants has come in a consultation response signed by CEOs Peder Tuborgh from Arla and Per Bank from Salling Group.
"It is important for the business community to be able to export and receive goods – but it is equally important to be able to attract skilled employees," the consultation response reads, among other things.
- I am surprised that they are not better informed, but I am of course ready to sit down with the companies that have concerns to go through the plans with them, says Thomas Haber Borch on this background.
Will find alternative solution
The two companies will instead find a completely new solution so that it does not become a debate for or against development. It must - if the companies have their way - be found in a working group with representatives from Aarhus Municipality's land development, the business community, Aarhus Port, Grenå Port and the association Beskyt Aarhusbugten, it appears from the consultation response.
Thomas Haber Borch tells TV2 Østjylland that a great deal of work has been done to inform companies and associations about what the project is exactly about. But not the very large companies.
- We just assumed that it was not necessary to do this with these very large companies. I had an expectation that they would support it and that they would make sure to familiarize themselves with it. Their consultation response seems strange to me because it does not match what the project actually is, he says.
TV2 Østjylland has contacted both Salling Group and Arla to get a comment on the port director's statement that the large companies have not properly investigated the cases.
Arla has not wanted to comment further beyond what can be read in the consultation responses.
Henrik Vinther Olesen, communications director at Salling Group, says that Thomas Haber Borch's statement must stand on its own account, and that Salling Group's position on the entire matter can be read in the consultation response.
- We are not against expanding the port, but for a compromise that everyone can live with, he says.
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