Tetra Pak is a privately held company, founded by Dr. Ruben Rausing in Sweden in 1951. It now forms part of the Tetra Laval Group, together with two other operating companies, Sidel and DeLaval. Tetra Pak is the world's leading food processing and packaging solutions company operating in more than 160 countries with around 24,000 employees and achieving annual sales of over 11 billion Euros.
Tetra Pak operates exclusively in the food and beverage industry providing packaging, processing and services solutions for its customers. The company originally focused on providing processing and packaging solutions for dairy and juice. A large share of its business still lies in these segments while new segments, such as plant-based dairy alternatives, prepared food, on-the-go beverages and water, represent areas of growth for the company. The services side of Tetra Pak’s business is also on the rise. The company’s service offerings include preventative maintenance, as well as digital solutions that integrate production, sales and logistic support for customers. Geographically, the strongest growth is found in China and South East Asia.
Dennis Jönsson
Dennis Jönsson is Tetra Pak's longstanding CEO. He is Swedish/Peruvian, studied in Sweden, and has worked across a diverse set of assignments within the company before rising to CEO. His prior roles included postings in Mexico where he first became a country head, then in the US leading a major turn-around of the company’s business in the country, and later as head of the global aseptic packaging business. This global, diverse experience was a key determinant for him becoming Tetra Pak's CEO, a position he has held for 14 years.
We had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Jönsson in the company’s headquarter in Lausanne.
Q: How do you see Tetra Pak's strategy?
Tetra Pak’s success lies in our ability to support customers. We are currently working on our long-term strategy, which will help us focus and accelerate critical success factors, both in the near and longer term, supporting our ambition to meet sustainability challenges, thrive in a digital economy and grow with our customers.
Over the next five years, food and beverage companies will continue to seek to gain greater control of their respective supply chains to achieve full traceability of their products, increase efficiency and cut costs. We understand the importance of this to our customers and therefore the digital transformation of our company and business is well underway to support them.
Meanwhile, sustainability is rising higher and higher on the agenda of customers and consumers. Tetra Pak has a hard-earned reputation as an environmental leader, and we are committed to enhancing our leadership and supporting our customers’ sustainability agenda.
We are determined to remain a leading partner of choice for the food and beverage industry, and we will continue to work closely with our customers, colleagues and other stakeholders so that together we adapt to the changes in our industry and continue to thrive in a sustainable digital future.
Q: Is it an advantage or disadvantage to be a privately held company?
Being a privately held company provides many advantages for the business and our customers. It enables us to focus on long-term goals, be more flexible and respond to consumer trends and customer requests in a more agile manner.
Q: How have Tetra Pak's owners structured the board of directors?
Tetra Pak is a privately held company with governance structures in place. We are one of three companies in the Tetra Laval Group - the other two companies are DeLaval and Sidel. The Tetra Laval board consists of three Rausing family members, six external members who are well-known business executives, and a non-family Chairperson.
Q: How would you describe Tetra Pak's customers?
Our customers operate within the food and beverage industry, a highly competitive market continually evolving with the changing consumer needs. Moreover, the rise of connected consumers, online grocery, and new start-ups are making this industry ever more dynamic. This means companies like Tetra Pak need to be more agile and innovative in the way we support our customers.
In addition, sustainability has risen higher than ever on the public agenda. This has meant our customers are increasingly looking for solutions that support their sustainability agenda and environmental profile. We have fully embraced this trend – in 2014 we launched the world’s first beverage carton made entirely from plant-based materials, currently used by a number of organic dairy brands in Europe. In 2018, using our Tetra Top® package, JUST Water received the “Best Packaging Solution” award at the Global Bottled Water Congress.
Q: How do you view your HR strategy and attracting talent?
A top-quality organization is increasingly critical. The digital transformation of our business is driving the need to build-up new competencies in the company. We are addressing this need by recruiting and retaining a diversified young talent base while providing training to our current employees.
We believe that learning on the job is the most effective way to develop talent. All new graduate hires work for us in ‘real jobs’ while undertaking a comprehensive development program. Upon completion of the program, we offer our graduates the opportunity to continue working with Tetra Pak in a permanent role.
Q: How does such a large organization as Tetra Pak stay entrepreneurial?
Staying entrepreneurial is key to our continued success. This is why we are constantly reviewing our operating model and processes, making use of the most up-to-date technology to simplify decision-making processes and increase speed of action.
As an example, in 2018, we restructured to increase efficiency and strengthen unity, collaboration and consistency across the company, ensuring our three businesses are all part of One Company, and presenting a united face to the customer.
One powerful tool we started to use in 2017 is the Customer Experience (CX) program. This is a vital check designed to collect instant feedback at the customer touchpoints that matter most and ensure that we respond quickly and in the right way. With this powerful tool, we can mobilize the whole organization towards a One Company, Customer First mentality.
Q: How important is R&D in Tetra Pak?
Innovation has always been incredibly important at Tetra Pak and a significant part of our corporate culture. Our customers need faster, better and cheaper developments to reduce their operational costs and increase performance in order to remain competitive. We invest in technology and new products in response to customers, consumer and market dynamics. There are six Tetra Pak R&D centers engaged in numerous projects in various parts of the world. We find that a customer-driven set of inputs is vital in driving much of R&D’s direction, with an emphasis on foreseeing future needs and demands, as well as improving our existing products and solutions.
Q: Which threats do you see to Tetra Pak's continued growth prospects?
I wouldn’t call them threats but opportunities.
Industry 4.0 and the idea of connected manufacturing is becoming increasingly pervasive. As already mentioned, over the next few years, food and beverage companies will demand an increased control over their entire supply chain and demonstrate full product traceability to consumers. This means that in order to continue to grow we also need to evolve.
In October 2018, we launched Tetra Pak® Plant Secure, a game changing plant management service that covers all the equipment and systems supplied by us and others, delivering tangible profitability results for the customer.
Another opportunity is sustainability.
Sustainability has always been part of our strategy. We set goals for continuous improvement in our development, sourcing, manufacturing and transportation activities. The increased focus from consumers and customers on environmental credentials gives us the opportunity to accelerate our development program, and more than ever before, we believe sustainability is Tetra Pak’s competitive advantage. We will continue to work with suppliers and customers to minimize our environmental impact across the value chain, from sourcing to production and from use to disposal of our products and equipment.
Q: Drawing toward the end of our interview, how do you see the role of corporate education?
I see corporate education as becoming increasingly important, with all employees across the whole organization undertaking lifelong learning, covering the specific needs that are relevant for their career and for the business.
We have invested in specific programs on a variety of topics, exploring new ways of learning for our people. In 2018, we launched a digital game based Accelerate Digital Awareness (ADA) learning program. More than 7,300 colleagues across our company have played the “game” and learnt about digitalization, what it is and how it affects everything from customer experience, marketing, production, products, services to how we work.
We increasingly see corporate education as more effective than attending, say, outside business schools, with the time away from work that entails. More interactive learning programs such as the ADA digital game are being developed for different areas of the business.
Q: What are your reflections on being based in Switzerland?
We have been in Switzerland for a long time since 1957 when we installed our first filling machine. Our Lausanne office was initially set up to handle purchases of raw materials, and it later evolved to meet the need for an independent financial center out of Sweden.
Situated in the heart of Europe, it developed into a group planning and policy making hub and it was a natural step in the Group’s organizational development to make it head office in 1981. It has been the Group’s global head office ever since.
Switzerland offers significant advantages to a global company like Tetra Pak, such as the geographic location, economic and political stability, availability of qualified staff, and quality of life.
Summary: Five key factors seen as particular strengths of Mr. Dennis Jönsson, as seen by this interviewer
Mr. Jönsson is focused on ensuring Tetra Pak is agile, fast and as customer-centric
as possible to thrive in the current and future environment. He travels extensively: up to 60% of his time is spent overseas.
His business philosophy is customer-focused, which implies being fast and entrepreneurial, in order to build up a customer-centric business to ensure growth.
He believes that internal functions such as R&D, HR and internal processes should also be driven by customer needs and adapt swiftly to changing demands.
Mr. Jönsson has strong people-skills and has developed the organization by emphasizing an open culture, and embracing young, international talent.
Beyond work, Mr. Jönsson stays healthy through skiing, golf, and other outdoor activities.
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