Tetra Pak, the worlds leading food processing and packaging solutions company, today announced a €24 Million ($25.3 Million) investment in it’s very first plant for Packaging Closures in South Asia, East Asia and Oceania. The facility is set to capture the region’s rapid market growth for packaging with Closures, forecast to grow by more than 30% between 2015 to 2018. 

The €24 million ($25.3 Million) investment, which will create around 60 jobs when it opens early in 2018, will be capable of producing more than 3 billion closures every year.

With demand for well-designed closures on beverage cartons rising all the time, the new facility will provide much-needed local production and essential extra capacity.
Michael Zacka, Cluster Vice President, Tetra Pak South Asia, East Asia and Oceania (SAEA&O), said: “The new production facility will ensure faster delivery for customers across the region, offering a broad range of exciting closures that meet consumer demand for functionality and convenience.” 

“It’s another sign of the confidence we have in this region, and our commitment to putting our customers’ success at the heart of everything we do. Together with the packaging material factory that we will open in Vietnam in 2019, our fourth in southern Asia alone, our ability to serve customers in this exciting part of the world is growing stronger all the time.”

The new production facility will be located within the company’s existing Straws and Strips Plant in Rayong, Thailand and will become operational in early 2018. With a production capacity of more than three billion units per year, the new plant will enable customers across the region to access locally produced Closures for the first time.  
  
“Consumers in our region are increasingly looking for packaging that is functional and convenient, in order to suit their progressively busy lifestyles,” says Zacka. “Being the industry leader, we are committed to drive innovation and help our customers address the evolving market needs. With this new facility we will be able to provide our customers with a wider portfolio of Caps and Closures, with shorter lead time and enhanced quality, efficiency and flexibility.” 

Besides producing new generation Closures such as HeliCap23, HeliCap27 and DreamCap26, the factory will also produce bio-based Closures, to help drive the sustainability agenda. Additionally, the location of the new factory will reduce CO2 emissions through reduced transportation from the production site to the final customer. And finally, the technology used in the plant will also minimise energy consumption during production. 

The announcement comes two months after Tetra Pak announced a €100 Million investment in a new regional Packaging Material manufacturing facility in Vietnam, to build the company’s manufacturing footprint in Asia, alongside existing production facilities in Singapore, India and Japan.  

“We are extremely positive about the growth outlook in our region and are quite confident that the new Closures plant will help us open many new opportunities,” said Zacka.