KEX turns Þingeyri’s old cooperative store into a hotel

KEX Hotel Þingeyri is operating in the former Kaupfélag Dýrafjarðar cooperative store, after the building was renovated and converted from its previous use as Hotel Sandafell, mbl.is reports.

“The Westfjords have a great deal to offer, so it is exciting to establish ourselves here,” says Kristinn Vilbergsson, one of the hotel’s owners.

Kristinn describes the region as largely untapped in tourism, with considerable potential for innovation. He says the dramatic nature and changing surroundings attract both Icelanders and foreign visitors.

The building stands on Þingeyri’s main street and has a distinctive curved facade. Its former shop space now houses a large restaurant and function room, with thick concrete columns in the middle and views along the fjord.

A new role for an old village centre

“The old cooperative stores used to be the heart of every rural village. Shopping habits are different now, but buildings can always be given a new purpose,” Kristinn says.

Kristinn has worked in business and on various projects for many years. Around the turn of the century, he ran the transport and courier company Vörubíl with others and was also the owner of Penninn for a period.

He later founded KEX Hostel on Skúlagata in Reykjavík, in buildings that had previously housed the Frón biscuit factory. The name came from the building’s former use and was chosen because it was short and distinctive.

From 2019 to 2021, Kristinn worked in Portland, Oregon, where he opened a KEX Hotel with local partners. He returned to Iceland during the Covid-19 pandemic and left the operation to his American co-owners before soon looking for new opportunities in the hotel and restaurant business.

Although he is from Reykjavík’s Vesturbær district, Kristinn says he has always been drawn to the Westfjords. He and his business partner, Þórður Hermann Kolbeinsson, found the property in Þingeyri and bought it from its previous owners.

They have been renovating the building and its 21 hotel rooms gradually in recent months.

The hotel restaurant focuses on ingredients from the surrounding area, particularly seafood supplied by fishermen who land their catch in Þingeyri. Its simple menu also includes berries and mushrooms from nearby forests.

“We want to take part in events in the village and create new ones that bring people here,” Kristinn says. The hotel has done so this summer and has been busy as a result.

Kristinn is also the main producer of the television programme Veislan, which is broadcast by RÚV. Gunnar Karl Gíslason and Sverrir Þór Sverrisson, known as Sveppi, host the programme about food culture across Iceland. A new series is being prepared, and an episode about food and culture during last week’s historic solar eclipse was filmed in Þingeyri.