CONSUMER-READY These acquainted packages are utilized by manufacturers akin to Del Monte, Nestle, Selecta and Magnolia.
BINH DUONG, Vietnam—At first look, Tetra Pak’s merchandise appear oddly acquainted, like a childhood pal whose identify is dangling on the tip of your tongue.
Maybe it’s the form that’s cloaked in a special design. It’s, in any case, the common time period within the Philippines for something that’s packaged in carton: a niece’s chocolate drink, mother’s pineapple juice, tita’s coconut water.
READ: Tetra Pak recycling: From garbage to kindergarten tables, chairs
John Jose, Tetra Pak advertising and marketing director for Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Indonesia, supplies some readability that our childhood assumptions are true. Amongst Tetra Pak’s largest clients within the nation is Del Monte Philippines, whose merchandise embody the fruit juices that line grocery cabinets, alongside different staple manufacturers like Nestle, Selecta and Magnolia.
“Within the Philippines, we have now a number of clients,” Jose tells the Inquirer in an interview right here. “In case you go to the grocery store, you will notice the manufacturers there.”
Whereas Tetra Pak has change into a family identify within the Philippines, Jose notes that they’ve but to seize as many purchasers as these in neighboring international locations.
Dwelling to no less than 110 million folks, the Philippines presents an enormous alternative for Tetra Pak. At current, the nation makes up solely a small share of Tetra Pak’s shopper base, which largely seeks its providers for dairy merchandise.
The bulk, or 55 %, of its merchandise go to Vietnam, whereas 29 % collectively go to Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Indonesia. The key right here is that Vietnam’s milk consumption is greater than double that of the Philippines at 30 to 40 liters per capita, making it a big marketplace for Tetra Pak.
Dairy dynamics
NEW MARKETS John Jose, Tetra Pak advertising and marketing director for Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Indonesia, sees potential in drinks. —PHOTOS BY MEG J. ADONIS
The place may the problem be for the Philippines, which had welcomed Tetra Pak a number of years sooner than Vietnam?
Jose explains that it’s within the kind that dairy takes: In Vietnam, folks devour extra ready-to-drink milk, or these already in liquid kind. Filipinos, however, want powdered milk as a result of it’s simpler to move; it occupies much less house and it’s undeniably lighter.
“We can’t do powder in our resolution,” Jose admits. “So there are new classes that we’re trying to enter.”
Armed with its P14.4-billion carton packaging manufacturing unit in Binh Duong province, Vietnam, Tetra Pak is able to penetrate a brand new class that’s additionally rising in reputation within the Philippines: espresso and tea.
“[Dairy] is turning into a really aggressive market. There are a variety of gamers in dairy, so we have to begin increasing into the opposite classes,” Jose says.
“We really feel now’s the best time. We now have the options in place,” he provides, referring to the varied sizes of Tetra Pak’s packaging, from 200 milliliters to 300 mL, from slim to broad. “That may handle the completely different wants of shoppers.”
The newly opened second section of its Binh Duong manufacturing unit greater than doubles Tetra Pak’s manufacturing capability at this web site to 30 billion aseptic carton packages per yr from 12 billion when it was first opened in 2019, together with 15 extra packaging codecs.
Various to plastic bottles
REGIONAL HUB Tetra Pak’s P14.4-billion manufacturing unit in Binh Duong, Vietnam
By increasing its capabilities in Vietnam, Tetra Pak can now higher serve neighboring international locations within the Asia Pacific, together with the Philippines.
The problem now’s toppling plastic bottles from their throne within the espresso and tea packaging class.
For his or her half, Jose explains they’ve been internet hosting open home periods for model house owners within the Philippines, hoping to vary their thoughts and see the advantages of carton packaging: sustainability and recyclability.
These periods additionally permit Tetra Pak to achieve client insights that may later form their methods and switch curiosity into follow.
However convincing and changing will take a while, he says.
“By way of our enterprise growth crew within the Philippines, we proceed to attempt to discuss to beverage gamers to see if there’s any curiosity within the concepts that we have now,” Jose provides.
For now, Tetra Pak hopes that its efforts are sufficient to open the gates to packaging espresso and tea by 2026, thus beginning a brand new period for the 74-year-old firm.
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“We now have completed a variety of work by way of understanding the class … we translate these insights into precise alternative platforms that clients can have a look at,” Jose says.
