Part of the Swedish Tetra Laval Group — and, a world leader in the field of liquid food processing and packaging, Tetra Pak Saudi Arabia, together with its partners in the Kingdom, Yousef Ahmad Al-Gosaibi, Muhammad Amer Bajrai, Ali Amer Bajrai, and Omar Siraj Qandeel, have made a significant investment by completing the upgrade of Tetra Pak’s factory, bringing total investment to SR265 million.
Initially inaugurated in early 1998 by Jeddah Governor Prince Misha’al, the factory has undergone major expansion during the last two years as a result of very strong interest shown by liquid food producers throughout the region.
The aim of the expansion is to continue to provide first class services to the growing local liquid food industry and throughout the region. With over 30 years of experience in Saudi and the Middle Eastern markets, Tetra Pak has developed the know-how, expertise and flair to provide innovative packaging solutions to meet the needs of the increasing number of liquid food producers within this region.
“The completion of the expansion program marks the company’s goal in establishing a regional ‘center of excellence’ to meet the needs of liquid food producers in the Kingdom and in neighboring countries. It completes the cycle of value-added services to our customers — from concept development through to product launch and beyond. Our marketing and technical support group are very experienced and are always available to support our customers. In effect, these developments reinforce our commitment to work local while remaining global in structure,” highlights Carl Schafer, Managing Director, Tetra Pak Saudi Arabia.
“Tetra Pak operates in over 165 countries around the world — and we have developed technical expertise and a wealth of experience that is difficult to match. There are tremendous growth opportunities within this region and this investment emphasizes our commitment to play our part within the packaging industry as it continues to develop in the future.”
Spreading over 43,000 sq.m., the Tetra Pak factory complex provides a truly world-class manufacturing base — housing both the carton and PET-perform factories, right in the heart of Arabia. Only the best quality materials are used and once on-site, and after being checked to exacting standards and approved by quality controllers, they are turned into packaging materials by a highly skilled workforce. Over 2.2 billion carton packages and more than 342 million PET-performs were delivered to customers in Saudi Arabia and some countries in Middle East and Africa last year.
Of particular interest to liquid food producers is the carton printing section, which has doubled to meet soaring demand. This now incorporates the very latest flexo-process printing methods offering unrivaled speed and quality.
Highly trained technicians from Sweden and elsewhere work closely to train local Saudi talent in operating this very latest technology, maintaining a long-standing Tetra Pak philosophy of being international by acting local. They are trained to operate some of the world’s fastest printers developed by VTV AB of Sweden, capable of printing 1 million packages per hour, and modern high speed extrusion laminators, through to slitting equipment and fully automated shrink-wrapping and palletizing machines. Both carton and plastic manufacturing and converting technology incorporates production facilities, quality assurance laboratories and raw material and finished goods storage.
The establishment of local manufacturing facilities also allows producers to benefit by enabling them to lower stock levels of input materials, which pass back considerable savings to the industry.
“Our customer’s success is our success, and this facility enables us to supply high quality packaging materials to meet the demands of the Kingdom’s dairy, beverage and liquid food producers now — and well into the future” Schafer adds.
All leading Saudi liquid food producers, are now using this state-of-the-art Swedish packaging technology to provide an increasing range of innovative quality products to consumers throughout the region.
This major Swedish investment is yet another example of foreign investment entering the Kingdom and helping to boost non-oil exports while encouraging Saudization in the economy.
With more than 18,600 employees worldwide and with a turnover in excess of 7 billion Euros, Tetra Pak works in strategic partnership with its suppliers and customers to provide efficient, innovative solutions and high quality environmentally sound products to millions of people worldwide.
