Euro 120 million facility will enhance company's competitiveness with food customers across the region

Tetra Pak? inaugurated its latest world-class factory at Chakan, near Pune, in the last week of May 2013 to meet the growing demand for Tetra Pak processing and packaging solutions across India, South and Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. The Euro 120 million (Rs 700 crore) facility marks a significant milestone in Tetra Pak's increasing presence in the Indian subcontinent. Speaking on the occasion, Tetra Pak President and CEO Dennis J?nsson said, "Tetra Pak started its market operations in India 26 years ago with a strong belief in the country's growth potential. In 1997 we inaugurated our first factory here. We appreciate the trust and belief that the Indian dairy and beverage industry has in Tetra Pak. Today, India ranks among our fastest growing markets."

"Investing in this factory demonstrates our strong commitment to supporting our customers to meet growing consumer demand in the region," he added. According to Tetra Pak South Asia Markets Managing Director Kandarp Singh, "Today's young urban consumer and the growing middle-class are shaping and transforming the Indian food and beverage industry. Being ahead of the curve, Tetra Pak is geared to meet the growing demand for food safety and convenience. Today's consumer looks for nutritious and healthy products in a convenient packaging format, something that Tetra Pak is well equipped to deliver."

Spread over 45 acres, the new Tetra Pak plant employs the most advanced packaging material production technologies and equipment in the world. Amongst various other facilities, the new plant will have a straw production unit, a processing systems workshop, a filling machine renovation, and a technical training academy. The localisation of these processes will greatly increase responsiveness to market demands. It will also house a Product Development and Innovation Centre which will have a laboratory, a pilot processing plant, and a pilot packaging plant to meet the product formulations and development needs of customers.

The new plant doubles the production capacity of Tetra Pak packaging material to 8.5 billion packages per year, with the potential of scaling it up to 16 billion packages. It also hopes to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification, reflecting its extremely high standards of energy efficiency, environmental performance, and occupant well-being. The plant will meet the growing demand for carton-packaged dairy beverages such as milk and lassi, and fruit juices, which is estimated to be about Rs 700 crore. The company will also offer packaging solutions for wines and spirits.

The company uses the technology for aseptic packages, which allows the food to retain its purity, naturalness and health values. This technology has been invented keeping in mind not only the food retail, but also the consumers. The raw material used for packaging is generally domestically sourced from India. Paper constitutes about 75 per cent of the raw material. Other components, like aluminium foil, are sourced from overseas. Elaborating on Tetra Pak's venture in India, Kandarp Singh said, "India is ranked number one in the dairy sector. It is estimated that the dairy segment would be growing at double its current rate in the next five years. This is where we find a huge business opportunity in India. The Tetra Brik aseptic packaging for beverages is in demand and is the company's USP as well."

According to J?nsson, the company's Takwe plant would be shutting down by the end of the year, and the production facility would be transferred to Pune. "Currently, the company exports to 29 countries. Vietnam and Indonesia hold the major shares of the market for Tetra Pak's offerings. India is in the list of the ten fastest-growing markets," he added. The plant is also environment-friendly and the power for the factory would be generated through a 100 kVA solar power plant for non-critical power load in offices. The energy that is conserved would be used to run the air-conditioners at the facility. One hundred per cent of the water used will be recycled, and the conservation of rain-water will take place in the in-house pool, which has the capacity to store about five million litres of rain-water.