Shelf-stable ready-made soup is a category that’s constantly evolving. Today’s consumers want comforting, great-tasting soups that fit their busy lives – and increasingly they expect packaging that reflects their environmental values.1 For brands, co-packers and private-label retailers, the winners will be those who can innovate faster, launch with confidence and scale efficiently.
That means more than tweaking recipes. It requires a joined-up journey: using consumer insights to find the right opportunities, turning them into testable concepts, developing recipes that perform in cartons, designing packs that stand out on the shelf, and then choosing the smartest route to production.
Whether you’re looking to grab consumer attention with bold new flavours, making a switch from cans to cartons or revitalising a legacy soup brand, we work with you to define a clear, insight-driven path forward. From first idea to soup on the shelf, these seven steps show how we can accelerate and sustain your growth in shelf-stable soups.
From the growing appetite for comforting, convenient soups to rising interest in bold new flavours, success requires a thorough understanding what your market really wants.
Instead of guessing what’s cooking, tap into our global consumer and market insights on shelf-stable food. We help you sift through the data to pinpoint demand spaces, consumption occasions and unmet needs.
From here, we can help you to define your winning niche and jointly scope what success looks like, from relevant KPIs to timelines and target markets, and we help ensure your next moves are based on real insights.
In a Customer Innovation Centre workshop, we bring together a potent blend of consumer insight, category trends and brand expertise. Our goal? To explore and refine concepts that can truly win the soup game.
Using proven ideation tools and early mock-ups, we co-create and refine soup concepts and packaging directions that are right for your brand, your consumers and ambitions.
This lets you move from abstract ideas to testable concepts before you commit to final recipes and extensive design work.
Once your soup ideas are simmering, the next step is to turn them into recipes that perform, both on shelves and in the homes of consumers.
Globally, 29% of consumers say they are eager to explore exciting new soup flavours1 The challenge is translating that insight into recipes that keep them coming back for more.
That is where the Tetra Recart Food Development Centre becomes your culinary co-pilot. Whether in Lund, Sweden, or via our mobile testing unit at your site. Master chefs, food developers and processing experts help you transform concepts and insights into recipes optimised for Tetra Recart cartons.
Together we clarify what you want to achieve and tackle any technical hurdles. We then plan and run focussed trials with carefully selected ingredients. As we collaborate, test and refine, you taste and provide feedback on multiple recipe options. You’ll leave with final soup samples and clear recommendations, ready for your launch and scale-up your delicious creations.
Tetra Recart offers your brand a distinctive visual presence that helps it stand out on all fronts.
Supported by our deep design expertise, your Tetra Recart package becomes a powerful asset for differentiation. We can help you go beyond appearance, applying design principles that help your brand get noticed on shelves:
- Spotlight your story: Focus on two to three core messages on the front panel to cut through the shelf noise and making your voice heard.
- Use category cues wisely: Strongly signal to consumers that your product belongs to the soup subcategory all while standing out from direct competitors.
- Engage every side: Use the carton’s surfaces for compelling brand storytelling, simple usage instructions and clear recycling information.
- Strengthen on-shelf impact: Design packs so they work together, creating a strong “billboard” effect when multiple cartons are placed side-by-side.
- Use colour intelligently: Apply colour and ink usage thoughtfully to reinforce brand identity.
For brands like Rosella, making the switch from cans to cartons was a golden opportunity to modernise pack design, differentiate from traditional formats and appeal to younger, more environmentally conscious consumers.
Discover how Rosella refreshed its iconic soup brand with Tetra Recart.
How do you bring your soup to the shelves without unnecessary capital costs and operational hiccups?
Tetra Recart offers industrialisation options that support a smooth journey from pilot to commercial production:
- Build your own: If you’re ready to invest in in-house capabilities, streamline your process with highly automated Tetra Recart filling lines which require fewer operators and take up less floor space.
- Connect with co-packers: If you prefer an asset-light route, use our extensive network of experienced co-packers, matched to your specific needs, who can reduce upfront investment and put your soup on shelves faster.
- Integrated processing expertise: We bring integrated processing know-how, optimising heat treatment, mixing and filling parameters to help your soup maintain its quality and safety from first pour to final package.
- Smart packaging, smarter logistics: The flat-packed Tetra Recart cartons are space-efficient, helping to free up warehouse space while reducing shipping costs, which can contribute to improved profitability.
- A full-service partner: Tetra Pak coordinates across developments, trials and production, combining materials, equipment and services to help make your journey towards market launch more efficient and less risky.
For many brands, co-packers are a strategic shortcut to market, especially when you want to move quickly, manage risk and avoid capital investment.
Tetra Pak uses its global knowledge and network to match you with experienced Tetra Recart co-packers, that fit your needs from product type to and recipe complexity to quality requirements and geography.
With the right co-packer in place, you can test and scale new soup concepts faster, secure efficient production and focus your resources on brand-building and portfolio growth.
For Rosella, this model enabled a successful relaunch. Tetra Pak connected the brand with a co-packer in Italy, that could produce its condensed tomato soup to the required quality while protecting its secret recipe, allowing Rosella to return to Australian shelves without rebuilding its own production.
Read the full article on the Rosella brand relaunch or how to connect with the right co-packer.
Our support extends beyond launch. We can assist with crucial preparations such as pack design, crafting compelling messaging and preparing retailer presentations.
Once your soup is on the shelf, we can monitor performance and consumer response to understand how it is being experienced. This ongoing feedback allows you to refine your communication, evolve pack design, optimise distribution choices and even adjust your recipe to keep pace with changing tastes.
This focus on continuous improvement helps your shelf-stable soup innovations reach their full potential.
1. Innova Market Insights: Soup Trends: Global Market Overview
https://www.innovamarketinsights.com/trends/soup-trends-global-market-overview/