Press release from the Port of Kolding

We are shocked and sad

The City Council’s recently announced decision to close the commercial port comes as a big surprise to port director Anders Vangsbjerg Sørensen. He makes no secret of his sadness at the decision, but he will handle the situation professionally and provide the best possible service to the port’s customers and the businesses currently operating in the port.

Over the past 175 years, the Port of Kolding has served the city and businesses as an active and innovative port. Port director Anders Vangsbjerg Sørensen would have liked it to continue like this for the next 175 years, but now a unanimous city council has decided that the port will be closed down and the companies that currently operate on the land will have to move in 25 years at the latest.

– It comes as a shock. We have recently spent a lot of resources on drawing up a plan for the future of the port. Just 14 days ago, we presented an overall master plan for the port’s development. A plan where we worked hard to ensure future growth and more jobs. Today, we have 433 jobs directly at the port and about 2,800 spin-off jobs in the municipality, and at the port we saw good opportunities for further growth, which, we felt, was an interest we had in common with the municipality. That’s why we didn’t see this development coming at all, says a sad Anders Vangsbjerg Sørensen.

From development to settlement

No one at the Port of Kolding was aware of the decision of the City Council until Kolding Port, together with the other companies at the port, received a press release from the City Council at 12 noon today.

– Right now we are all shocked, but of course we respect that the city council has a different task than we have here at the Port of Kolding, and as the owner of the Port of Kolding they are of course entitled to make that decision when they think it is for the best of the city. Now my colleagues and I need to get healthy, and then we’ll start meeting with businesses in the port to figure out how best to serve them in the time ahead. The City Council has announced that the companies may have up to 25 years to find another location or wind up themselves, and during that period it will be the Port of Kolding’s task to serve the companies and customers in the best possible way, just as we will cooperate with the Municipality of Kolding to create the best transition, concludes Anders Vangsbjerg Sørensen.