Tetra Pak sales reach record high
a 6.1 per cent increase on the previous year, the company said last
week.
The firm, based in Lund in southern Sweden, said that a focus on emerging markets such as India, Pakistan, Russia, Brazil, the Middle East, Latin America and China had been the principal reason for the strong sales growth in 2007. A "focus on cost-effective innovation and our strategy of working closely with our customers to enhance operational performance and develop total system solutions", had also contributed, according to Tetra Pak president and CEO Dennis Jönsson. China China, in particular, remains a key market for the Swedish firm, with Tetra Pak investing €60m in a state-of-the-art packaging material manufacturing plant there in 2007 in order to meet growing demand from China's dairy and beverage sector. According to market analysts McKinsey, the Chinese dairy sector is likely to be worth $20bn by the end of the decade, with sales of milk beverages - the part of the market targeted by Tetra Pak - expected to increase by around 22 per cent by 2010. The new Tetra Pak facility, in Hohhot, has an annual production capacity of eight billion packages, and should be on stream later this year. Russia Russia is also an important market for Tetra Pak, with a new €100m converting plant opened there during 2007 to support the company's business there and in eastern Europe, where demand for more sophisticated packaged goods is growing steadily in line with incomes, especially in the new EU member states. Processing & packaging Tetra Pak said that sales of processing equipment reached €911m in 2007, up more than 12 per cent from the previous year, while packaging sales reached €7.8bn, a more modest increase of 4.1 per cent compared to 2006. Part of the increase in packaging sales came from a number of new products launched during the year, including the Tetra Gemina aseptic package, a roll-fed gable top shaped package for juice and milk-based products, and the Tetra Top Eifel 038 package, an easy-to-open cap for the Tetra Top package designed to increase consumer convenience. On the processing side, the company launched a new filling machine for milk and juice products, the Tetra Rex TR/27 XH, and the Tetra Tebel OST 6, a curd-making vat that boasts low maintenance and superior reliability compared to rival products, the company said. Jönsson said that the company's customer support programme - working with food and drink industry clients on bespoke solutions to their processing and packaging problems - had also borne fruit in 2007. "Tetra Pak supports its customers through every stage of the product lifecycle - from collaborative product development to technical services and training. It's a strategy that is paying off, according to a recent global customer satisfaction survey, conducted by independent research firm Walker Information. Based on the survey, Tetra Pak is receiving world-class marks in customer loyalty," he said. According to the company, it supplied a record 137 billion individual packages during 2007, which were used by food and beverage companies around the world to deliver over 69.5 billion litres of milk, juice, fruits and other products to their customers. The company also supplied an additional 592 packaging machines and 2,107 processing units in 2007. This brings the total number of Tetra Pak packaging machines in operation to 9,143 and the total number of processing units in operation to 28,643, the firm added.
