Tetra Pak in brief

Company Overview

Tetra Pak PROTECTS WHAT’S GOOD™. That’s not only our motto—it’s an aspiration that’s reflected in every aspect of our business. As the world’s leading food processing and packaging solutions company, we are committed to making food safe and available, everywhere.  And our commitment extends far beyond protecting the contents in a package. It also includes support our customers’ businesses, a responsibility to reduce our environmental impact, and shape a better future for all our stakeholders—from our employees, to our suppliers and the communities in which we operate.

Headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, Tetra Pak employs more than 20,000 people in over 150 countries. We are one of three independent industry groups that belong to the Tetra Laval Group, a private industrial group.

A History of Innovation

More than 50 years ago, our founder, Dr. Ruben Rausing, began testing an innovation that would change the way food was distributed around the world. He wanted to create a practical, cost-effective package for milk and cream—which up to this point were sold primarily in glass bottles or loosely over the counter.

With this inspiration, Dr. Rausing founded Tetra Pak in Lund, Sweden. In 1952 the first Tetra Pak machine was delivered and in 1961, Tetra Pak launched a breakthrough innovation: the world’s first aseptic carton--a package which enables milk and other perishable liquid foods to remain on the shelf for more than six months without refrigeration or preservatives.  By integrating high barrier aluminium and polyethylene with carton board and using a special technique to sterilise the package’s contents, aseptic technology ensures that both the food and the packaging are free of harmful bacteria. The International Institute of Food Technologists recognised aseptic processing technology as “the most important food science development of the 20th century.”  
Over the last 50 years Tetra Pak has developed aseptic packages of different sizes, shapes and methods of opening and closing. Tetra Pak packages and processing equipment are used throughout the world for a variety of food products including milk, fruit juice, water, tomato sauces and purees, soups, puddings, ice cream, cheese,  and wine. In 2007 more 137 billion Tetra Pak packages were delivered in every corner of the world – that’s 4344 packages of food or drink each second.

Making Food Safe and Available, Everywhere

Many people think of Tetra Pak as a packaging company, but that’s just one part of our business. We work closely with our customers and suppliers to produce complete processing, packaging and distribution systems for the food and beverage industry.
Tetra Pak not only supplies packaging machines but also processing systems, distribution equipment, software and support services. We’re a one-stop shop that can meet all our customers’ food processing and packaging needs.

We meet the everyday needs of hundreds of millions of people around the world with products that are safe, innovative and environmentally sound.

Responsible, Sustainable Industry Leadership

Our founder Dr. Ruben Rausing once said “a package should save more than it costs.”  This philosophy has become an integral part of our business—as we set out to achieve profitable growth in a socially responsible and sustainable way.

For more than 40 years Tetra Pak has been involved in school milk and other feeding programmes. As a result of our cooperation with local governments, customers and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), 45 million children around the world receive milk or other nutritious drinks in Tetra Pak packages in school.

Our environmental commitment is embedded in every aspect of our operations and product life cycle—from increasing the percentage of renewable resources in our packaging material to sourcing raw materials from well managed, sustainable forests to facilitating and promoting consumer recycling. We are also committed to reducing our carbon footprint. In fact, we have set an ambitious target to reduce our CO2 emissions by 10% in absolute terms by 2010—a goal we are well on target to meet.

Key Location

Tetra Pak International SA
Headquarters
70 Avenue Général-Guisan
Case Postale 446
CH-1009 PULLY/LAUSANNE

Phone: +41 21 729 2111
Fax: +41 21 729 2244
www.tetrapak.com