Tetra Pak packaging storage technology. How Tetra Pak packaging is made. Division of Tetra Pak into a subsidiary. New products and entry into the international market

▲ € 10.36 billion (2011)

Number of employees

22 896 people

Parent company Site

Tetra Pak(pronounced Tetra Pak) is a multinational company of Swedish origin. The company manufactures packaging, packaging machines and equipment for the processing of liquid food products, as well as equipment for group packaging.

Tetra Pak was founded in 1951 by Ruben Rausing (Swede. Ruben rausing) in Lund (Sweden) as a division of Åkerlund & Rausing, and its activity was based on the invention of Eric Wallenberg - tetrahedral packaging, after which the company was named. Commercial success came to Tetra Pak in the 1960s and 1970s with the introduction of Tetra Brik packaging and aseptic technology. This has greatly simplified the system of food delivery and storage. From the early 1950s to the mid-1990s, the company was headed by Ruben Rausing's two sons, Hans and Ged, who from family business, in which six employees worked in 1954, literally created a transnational corporation.

Tetra Pak is now the world's largest food packaging manufacturer in terms of sales, with operations in more than 170 countries and more than 22,000 employees (as of 2011). The company is part of the Swiss concern Tetra Laval, along with DeLaval, a supplier of equipment for dairy farms, and Sidel, a manufacturer of plastic bottles. The company's headquarters are located in Lund (Sweden) and Lausanne (Switzerland).

History

Founder of the company Ruben Rausing

Tetra Pak was established in 1951 as a division of Åkerlund & Rausing, founded in Malmö in 1929 by Ruben Rausing and Erik Åkerlund, to produce carton packaging for food. Ruben Rausing, who studied in New York in the early 1920s, first saw self-service grocery stores in America, then unknown in Europe, and realized that primary packaging was the future. retail food products... It was a more hygienic and practical way of distributing basic foodstuffs than the traditional European sale at the time, due to the counter of goods wrapped in paper or poured into bulky glass bottles. In the late 1920s, together with the industrialist Erik Åkerlund, he bought a dilapidated packaging factory in Malmö. Åkerlund & Rausing became the first packaging company in Scandinavia and subsequently the largest manufacturer carton packaging for dry food products. However, initially Åkerlund & Rausing was not particularly profitable, and in 1933 Åkerlund sold his stake to Rausing, who became the sole owner of the business.

Becoming

Åkerlund & Rausing produced different kinds paper packaging for dry food, but Rausing also set out to find a way to pack liquids, such as milk and cream, and spent a lot of money developing such packaging. It was necessary to ensure optimal preservation and hygiene of the product, as well as efficiency of distribution, using the minimum amount of material - in accordance with the then famous principle of "packaging should save more than it costs". The new packaging had to be cheap enough to compete with draft milk; this meant a minimum of waste in production and maximum efficiency.

In 1943, the Åkerlund & Rausing laboratory began developing cartons for milk, and in 1944, Erik Wallenberg, then the head of the research laboratory, came up with the idea of constructing a tetrahedral packaging from a paper cylinder. The idea was simple but effective: the material was used in an optimal way. After overcoming initial doubts, Rausing realized the potential of such packaging and applied for a patent on March 27, 1944. Until the end of the decade, the company's employees focused on developing suitable packaging materials and solving technical problems such as filling, sealing and distribution.

It is believed that the proposal to continuously seal the packages while filling the cylinder with milk, as is the case in the manufacture of sausages - to prevent oxygen from entering the package - came from Rausing's wife Elizabeth. In 1946, engineer Harri Jerund presented a model of a packaging machine, and in cooperation with Swedish pulp and paper mills and foreign chemical companies, they finally managed to develop a material suitable for packaging: the cardboard was covered with polyethylene, which made the paper airtight and allowed the bags to be heat-sealed while filling them.

Activity history

AB Tetra Pak was founded in Lund (Sweden) in 1951. In May of the same year, a new packaging system was presented to the press, and in 1952 a local dairy plant Lundaortens delivered the first automatic packaging machine for cream filling in tetrahedral 100 ml bags. In subsequent years, tetrahedral packages were increasingly seen on the shelves of Swedish grocery stores, and in 1954 a dairy plant in Stockholm purchased the first line for filling milk in 500 ml bags. In the same year, the first car went to Hamburg (Germany), followed by France (1954), Italy (1956), Switzerland (1957), and later the Soviet Union (1959) and Japan (1962).

Various projects - tetrahedron, aseptic packaging technology, Tetra Brik - all required huge investments, so the company's financial difficulties continued into the 1960s. The commercial breakthrough for Tetra Pak only took place in the mid-1960s with the introduction of the new Tetra Brik packaging in 1963 and the development of aseptic technology. Additional funds were obtained from the sale of Åkerlund & Rausing in 1965; AB Tetra Pak remained in the same hands. In the early 1960s, international expansion began: in 1960, the first packaging plant outside Sweden was built in Mexico, and in 1962 a similar plant appeared in the United States. In 1962, the Tetra Classic Aseptic was installed for the first time outside Europe, in Lebanon. The late 1960s and 1970s saw a global expansion of the company, thanks in large part to the new Tetra Brik Aseptic aseptic packaging, which began selling in 1969. It has opened up new markets in developing countries and has become a powerful driver of sales growth.

Mergers and acquisitions

In 1981, Tetra Pak moved its headquarters to Lausanne, Switzerland, however all research and development activities were still carried out in Lund. In 1991, Tetra Pak acquired the Swedish company Alfa-Laval AB, a world leader in the manufacture of equipment for various industries, including food. This deal was the largest takeover to date in Sweden. Allowing Tetra Pak to use technology Alfa laval in food processing, mergers have contributed to the creation of integrated solutions processing and packaging for customers of the new combined company. The deal attracted the attention of the European Commission's antitrust authority, but the takeover took place after both companies made various concessions.

Following the merger with Alfa Laval, Tetra Pak announced plans to return its headquarters to Sweden, and in 1993 the Tetra Laval concern was created with joint headquarters in Lund and Lausanne. Alfa Laval's liquid handling business was taken over by Tetra Pak and the dairy part of the company was spun off into a separate structure called Alfa Laval Agri. Alfa Laval Agri was later renamed DeLaval, after Alfa Laval founder Gustave de Laval; this company is still part of the Tetra Laval concern. A division of Alfa Laval not directly related to Tetra Pak's activities - among other things, producing heat exchangers and separation equipment - in 2000 was sold to the Swedish financial group Industri Kapital. In 2001, Tetra Laval acquired the French plastic packaging group Sidel. The merger was banned by the European Commission on the grounds that both Tetra Pak and Sidel were market leaders in their sector while operating in related areas. In the end, the European Court of Justice ruled in favor of Tetra Laval.

Owners and management

The Tetra Laval group is controlled by holding company Tetra Laval International, whose board of directors includes three children of Gad Rausing. The Gad Rausing family has control over the company.

Activity

Tetra Pak is represented worldwide by 40 companies that are divisions of Tetra Pak International SA. The company operates in over 170 countries. Since the relative cost of Tetra Pak's final products is low, developing countries have become an important market for the company from the outset.

The range of packaging produced by Tetra Pak

In 2011, the company had an annual turnover of 10.36 billion euros. Tetra Laval's FY 2010/2011 report states that Tetra Pak's growth has been particularly strong in the Chinese markets, South-East Asia, Eastern Europe, as well as Central and South America... Rising incomes in these markets are driving higher consumption of protein-rich foods, in particular dairy, and Tetra Pak has announced a 10% increase in investment in emerging markets to over € 200 million (2009). With nearly € 200 million invested in new packaging plants in Russia (2007) and China (2008), in 2011 Tetra Pak announced the construction of similar plants in India and Pakistan to meet growing demand. The new factories in the Indian Peninsula are also expected to be able to supply the markets in the Middle East, where similar growth has been observed. According to the Financial Times, the increase in milk consumption in emerging markets has particularly affected UHT milk, which is easier to transport and safer; this is beneficial for Tetra Pak's business, which accounts for two-thirds of its sales in aseptic packaging. Tetra Pak's most popular product is the Tetra Brik Aseptic package, which has been a bestseller since the 1970s. In May 2011, Tetra Pak began producing the first aseptic carton milk bottle called Tetra Evero Aseptic.

Packaging factories: 42
Number of countries where the company operates: 170
Market Companies: 38
Sales offices: 79
Number of staff: 22 896
Number of packages produced in 2011 (million): 167,002
Revenue in 2011 (million euros): 10,360

Products and services

Aseptic technology

Aseptic packaging technology is the main invention of Tetra Pak. In aseptic processing, product and package are sterilized separately, after which the package is filled with product and sealed under sterile conditions. When an aseptic container is filled with UHT contents (liquid such as milk or juice, or processed foods such as vegetables and fruits), it can be stored without refrigeration for up to a year.

Package

Waste recycling

Tetra Pak began to deal with the problem of recycling in the mid-1980s, and already in 1990 the company introduced a recycling program for its cardboard packaging in Canada. In 2000, Tetra Pak invested 20 million baht (€ 500,000) in the first aseptic packaging recycling plant in Southeast Asia, located in Thailand. In 2010, 30 billion used Tetra Pak packages were recycled, double the number in 2002. As of 2011, 20% of used Tetra Pak packages are recycled globally, with countries such as Belgium, Germany, Spain and Norway recycling more than 50%. To increase the amount of waste recycled and meet targets, Tetra Pak has taken a lead role in the recycling process, including helping to develop waste collection schemes, promoting new recycling technologies and raising awareness about waste management and the wise use of resources.

Social projects

Bureau of Food Development

Tetra Pak has a long history of social projects: for 45 years, the company has supported the School Milk and School meals". In the late 1970s, Ruben Rausing personally took part in a joint project between the World Food Program, the World Bank and Tetra Pak, which aimed to provide Indian families with surplus milk produced in the West.

The Bureau of Food Development program was created to improve nutrition and health of people around the world and to fight poverty. The main focus of this program is on school feeding and milk supply for schoolchildren, but resources are also being devoted to improving management practices. Agriculture and processing of dairy products, including training farmers to increase their efficiency and the safety of their food products. This is beneficial for Tetra Pak itself as it helps build relationships and secure supply in less developed markets. Tetra Pak works closely with local governments and public organizations to monitor the implementation and development of such programs.

School milk

The School Milk Program is an international initiative to provide milk to children and adolescents in educational institutions... The program has been implemented in 70 countries of the world for 80 years. Since 1970, the program has been supported by Tetra Pak.

Disaster relief

Tetra Pak provided support to earthquake victims in Haiti and Japan in 2010 and 2011, during forest fires in Russia in 2010, during the floods in Pakistan in 2010 and in Thailand in 2011. In China, Tetra Pak helped improve food security as well as the introduction of modern methods in dairy production after the 2008 melamine poisoning scandal. Although Tetra Pak was not involved in the scandal, it had a detrimental effect on the packaged milk market in China. According to the Financial Times, it was not just a charitable initiative, but an attempt to secure the future of this market, allowing the industry to become safer, more environmentally friendly and more efficient. It was reported that the training program was very successful, as a result of which the standards of work with dairy products have increased significantly.

Maintains the company's reputation at the # 1 level in Russia

About the Tetra Pak experience

Everything at Tetra Pak is open door. An open workspace has been created in the office: almost no one has an office, and most of the employees work in an open space. Everyone at Tetra Pak is free to contact a colleague or manager with a question, wish, or idea. This is probably one of the reasons why people stay here for a long time. The company even has a tradition: annually to congratulate those who have worked at Tetra Pak for more than 10 and 25 years. All this suggests that the company cares about its employees and tries with all its might to keep them, which motivates them to work harder and develop.

About personal victories

Tetra Pak has existed for over 60 years, in Russia since 86. During this time, the company managed to become a leader in the packaging materials production market. It is a great responsibility for me to manage communications in a company with the strongest reputation in Russia, which is confirmed by research on brand perception in different markets.

About colleagues

Tetra Pak employees become friends. We spend a lot of time together at work, but we continue to communicate outside of it. For example, we have our own running club. In good weather, runners gather at the Iskra stadium near our office and train, we even have our own hockey team. Some participate in marathons and competitions, while others join a support group and root for them. It's normal for us to go on vacation together, spend weekends in the forest on skis, celebrate birthdays.

Provides legal support to Tetra Pak in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Central Asia and the Caucasus countries.

Work-life balance

How to manage to work as efficiently as possible and keep up with sports, spend time with loved ones? The mission is achievable: first, to set priorities, and second, to understand that you cannot sacrifice personal time for the sake of work. In some companies it is customary to linger after work, but not in Tetra Pak: here good employee- this is the one who manages to solve all their affairs within the framework of working hours.

About the level of communication

Tetra Pak is able to build friendly relations with colleagues because they try to select people who are similar in spirit and human qualities to the company. The employee at Tetra Pak is a high quality professional who is ready to share knowledge and does not hesitate to ask questions. This is someone who is actively involved in sports or is fond of something and finds like-minded people. People with similar interests and ambitions work here, so it is so easy for them to make friends.

About the first day

From the first day I felt the atmosphere of Tetra Pak: it's a place where friendly, open people work. Teambuildings help to create a comfortable environment. They can help you get to know people from different departments or meet colleagues from other regions. Yes, of course, there is competition, but it is healthy, necessary for the development of any company.

Provides technical support Tetra Pak customers in Siberia and the Far East.

About the main thing in work

I am a technical customer service manager in Siberia and the Far East. Most of all I like to communicate with a huge number of people from different regions with different lifestyles. Russia “there” is different from Russia “here”. Few people would think to spend their vacation in Kemerovo, but I travel around the country and recognize it. In addition to the fact that on frequent business trips I am enriched culturally and emotionally, the set pace of work keeps me in good shape.

About motivation

At Tetra Pak, everyone feels confident in the future and supported by the company. In my opinion, this is the best motivation. The realization that the company appreciates your work, is happy with ideas and is ready to support the initiative, encourages you to work with a vengeance. At Tetra Pak, you are encouraged to make your own decisions if they lead to the desired result. But you also need to be aware of the responsibility for possible mistakes.

About emotions

Before Tetra Pak, I worked for Russian enterprise and in a Western company with an absolutely Russian mentality. I can put it this way: in Tetra Pak, there simply does not exist that which is usually burdensome at work. Here, the right emotions are appreciated: when people do not allow themselves to raise their voices, to break down on colleagues, to take advantage of a position. Yes, we have conflicts, but we always find a constructive way out of any difficult situation.

Coordinates the activities of the entire factory.

About the beginning of the journey to Tetra Pak

Preparations for the construction of the Tetra Pak factory began on September 1, 2005, and I joined the team as a project manager. There was a lot I didn't know then, but fortunately there is an On-job Training program. It allows you to undergo training in different departments of the company for 3-4 months, to deal with additional projects in parallel with the main one. I passed it, and it helped me quickly understand how working at Tetra Pak works.

About the ideal employee

The ideal Tetra Pak employee is a highly motivated person at work and in personal life: he wants to be first, but knows how to work in a team. He learns and develops, and we help him in this. For example, with each employee we develop a plan career growth... If, in order to achieve his goal, he needs to learn something abroad, at another Tetra Pak factory, we are ready to organize it.

About motivation at Tetra Pak

In 2005, the turnover of personnel in production was 20%. This was due to the fact that the entry in work book about working for Tetra Pak was already highly valued back then. We are a company that not only provides people with jobs, but also constantly trains our employees. Tetra Pak has a staff turnover rate of 4% today. This is an excellent indicator of how people value their work, the attitude of management towards employees and corporate values. Our core principles are customer focus and long-term vision, quality and innovation, partnership and pleasure, freedom and responsibility. There are a huge number of enterprises in which there is too much bureaucracy, and the initiative is punishable. At Tetra Pak, we welcome new ideas, we do not restrict employees in the freedom to make decisions necessary to fix the problem. We were one of the first in Russia to use the World Class Manufacturing program. This is a methodology of continuous improvement: everyone can, alone or in a team, come up with and develop an idea aimed at improving business or production processes. So at Tetra Pak everyone has the opportunity to show their professional skills and creativity. Yes, sometimes our employees make mistakes, but they learn from their mistakes. This is probably the essence of freedom and responsibility in corporate culture Tetra Pak.

We all use Tetra Pak products, from milk to wine. Today we will visit the Tetra Pak factory and find out in more detail how this packaging is born.

All Tetra Pak factories around the world are made, almost the same. That is, when you find yourself at a factory somewhere in South America, you will see exactly the same building made of exactly the same brick. The layout inside will be similar, since they are built according to a single standard.

Everything inside is done extremely rationally. Let's say the rooms for coffee breaks are made transparent so that you can always see who is driving teas there for too long, instead of working. There are no seating places - only standing ones, so that again there is no incentive to sit there. All offices have the names of cities in other places, offices can be called the names of the rivers Volga, Dnieper, Don, etc. Why this was done, I still did not understand, the employees did not give an explanation for this either.

The company was founded in Sweden, but now it is essentially global. The largest plant in Central and Eastern Europe is located in Russia. From here the packaging for the entire LPG is delivered.

Pictures hang on the walls of the office, where the packaging or its contents (juices, milk) are played out in every possible way.

Tetra Pak packaging is so original that even in the USSR, when they tried to do everything on their own, they entered into an agreement with Tetra Pak for the production of packaging. Remember the triangular milk bags? This is Tetra Pak.

Now Tetra Pak, in addition to packaging, also makes straws. The factory produces 5.5 billion packages and 1 billion straws a year, serving about 200 customers.

The factory employs 280 people, of which about 40 are women. The factory actively uses the resources of regenerated forests for its cardboard packaging. Tetra Pak is a family-owned company, the main idea when it was founded in 1952 was that a package should cost less than the contents of this package. Another technological innovation was that the packaging is soldered below the liquid level. The most modern method is ultra-pasteurization, that is, heating the contents up to 150 degrees and instant cooling in 4 seconds. As a result, the product retains its freshness for up to 6 months.

In the production of packaging, 75% of the cardboard is used, 100% of the factory's waste is recycled. At the same time, for the manufacture of packaging, secondary material is not used because it is not hygienic, only new material... And the waste is recycled to make boxes and other things that do not have direct contact with products. Cardboard is the most sustainable packaging option and is produced by a factory from regenerated forests.

In addition to cardboard, 25% of the packaging is a polyaluminium mixture (paraffin wax, aluminum). This mixture is in direct contact with the product, only it allows you to preserve the taste of the product and be neutral to it. Research is currently underway at Tetra Pak to create natural packaging for direct contact with the product. So far, there are either no such materials, or they are very expensive.
Tetra Pak actively cooperates with WWF in restoring the Ugra forests in the Kaluga region and helping to raise bison.

Wherever washstands are installed, there is a reminder of how to wash your hands correctly. The packaging is in contact with food, and therefore it is produced in conditions of increased purity.

In front of the entrance to the workshop, there is a mirror that reminds the worker looking into him who is responsible for his own safety.

Then you need to get earplugs to protect against noise, and then once again disinfect your hands with a chemical agent.

Production plan.

Shop. Blue and white stackers are robots that drive around the workshop on their own.

First of all, the blanks go to the printing machine where the labels of future products are applied on the ns. People who are not busy with work can move around the shop only along the yellow stripe. Robots are driving around the rest of the space.

Before the inscription appears, it is necessary to make a stencil through which the paint will be applied. This is a stencil workshop.

Each item has its own place outlined by a yellow stripe.

After the stencil is ready, the image is applied to the supplied cardboard.

Car refueling paint.

As a result, such printed bobbins roll out of the car.

Each tool has its own place.

Laminator workers leave their prints on such paper and sign. Whether this is such a joke, or whether it has practical value, remains unknown.

As a result, such ready-made future packages come out of the laminator, now they have to be cut.

The cut reel of packaging goes to the conveyor, where it is wrapped in foil and stamped.

After that, the cut and packed bobbins are sent to the warehouse for filling.

And these are robots. The workers traditionally call them female names... Now we have Marina and Tatiana in front of us.

Straws are also produced in this workshop.
It is from these blanks that straws for drinking drinks are born.

And this is the equipment for their production.

The material for production is stored here, as well as a part of the packaging already produced. Now it is ready to be sent to factories where they will be filled with drinks that we are all so used to buying in stores.

After work, workers can have a snack in the free cafeteria. There is a buffet, so you can take as much food as you like. The food is ordinary, not from Swedish cuisine.

From the factory for workers ply free buses to the nearest settlements... And every year, when the plant celebrates Family Day, workers can bring their families to the plant so that their loved ones can see how they work.

Products and services food packaging[d]

Tetra Pak was founded in 1951 by Ruben Rausing in Lund (Sweden) as a division of Åkerlund & Rausing, and was based on the invention of Eric Wallenberg - tetrahedral packaging, after which the company was named. Commercial success came to Tetra Pak in the 1960s and 1970s with the introduction of Tetra Brik packaging and aseptic technology. This has greatly simplified the system of food delivery and storage. From the early 1950s to the mid-1990s, the company was led by Ruben Rausing's two sons, Hans and Gad, who literally created a multinational corporation from the family business, which had six employees in 1954.

History

Tetra Pak was established in 1951 as a division of Åkerlund & Rausing, founded in Malmö in 1929 by Ruben Rausing and Erik Åkerlund, to produce carton packaging for food. Ruben Rausing, who studied in New York in the early 1920s, first saw self-service grocery stores in America, then unknown in Europe, and realized that primary packaging was the future of grocery retail. It was a more hygienic and practical way of distributing basic foodstuffs than the European counterparts selling at the time, wrapped in paper or poured into bulky glass bottles. In the late 1920s, together with the industrialist Erik Åkerlund, he bought a dilapidated packaging factory in Malmö. Åkerlund & Rausing became the first packaging company in Scandinavia and subsequently the largest manufacturer of dry food cartons. However, initially Åkerlund & Rausing was not particularly profitable, and in 1933 Åkerlund sold his stake to Rausing, who became the sole owner of the business.