Tetra Pak expands investment in confidence of Vietnam’s strong post-pandemic rebound

Tetra Pak's €120 million state-of-the-art packaging material factory in Binh Duong province

“This additional investment of €5 million reflects our confidence in the strong recovery of Vietnam’s post-pandemic economy,” said Eliseo Barcas, managing director for Tetra Pak Vietnam. “This investment also enables us to better serve our customers by offering greater capacity, more exciting packaging innovation and reducing our environmental footprint.”

The new investment is expected to increase the factory’s annual output from the current 11.5 billion to 16.5 billion packages, thereby meeting the growing needs for aseptic packages in Vietnam and regional markets. In addition, it empowers the factory to produce premium carton packages to replace imports.

The upgrade will also include the installation of 2,300 solar panels on the factory’s roof. This effort is part of Tetra Pak’s ambition to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in the company’s operations by 2030.

“As the business environment is being surrounded by many challenges brought on by COVID-19, the expansion of Tetra Pak factory in Binh Duong is indeed a refreshing highlight, reflecting the company’s leadership in the food packaging industry,” said Tran Quang Trung, president of the Vietnam Dairy Association. “The improvements would surely give dairy producers peace of mind on the continuous supply and quality of the carton packaging, which has become very important in the context of the current disruptions in the global value chain. Sourcing packaging material from a local production as in Tetra Pak Binh Duong factory is, no doubt, a big advantage for not just dairy but other food and beverage manufacturers.”

The new investment is expected to increase the factory’s annual output to 16.5 billion packages

With the investment, Tetra Pak continues to reinforce its strategic focus to protect food, people, and the planet, which is even more important during the pandemic.

“The pandemic has stressed the importance of safe and nutritious food in protecting people’s health. Working with local food manufacturers, we have delivered about seven billion units of liquid food packaged in cartons to Vietnamese people over the past nine months, an equivalent growth of almost 14 per cent on a year-over-year basis,” the managing director said.

He added: “The lightweight and aseptic attributes of carton packaging make food easy and safe for transportation and storage everywhere, especially in times of lockdown.”

When the fourth wave of COVID-19 hit Binh Duong province in full force, Tetra Pak Binh Duong was one of the first factories in the province to encourage its employees to live on-site to protect its people and operations.

All living essentials including air-conditioning, food, hygiene, medical assistance, gym, sport, and entertainment facilities were properly set up to ensure the physical and mental wellbeing of 260 colleagues.

“Since our Binh Duong factory team made the difficult decision to start living inside the factory at the beginning of July, it has not been easy. Yet I am very grateful that they are all safe and sound,” Eliseo said. “Every single colleague in our factory is showing amazing resilience in caring for each other while ensuring that we continue to deliver on our promise to protect what’s good.”

The Binh Duong factory was put into operation in mid-2019 as Tetra Pak’s eighth factory in the Asia-Pacific region that is set to produce aseptic cartons for domestic and export markets in ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand.

In 2020, Tetra Pak Binh Duong was certified with the highest LEED Version 4 Gold, which helps the factory save 17.6 million litres of water, recycling or salvaging 65 per cent of generated waste, and decreasing 4,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions a year.

Tetra Pak is a world-leading food processing and packaging solutions company. Working closely with customers and suppliers, the company provides safe, innovative, and environmentally sound products that each day meet the needs of hundreds of millions of people in more than 160 countries. With more than 25,000 employees around the world, Tetra Pak believes in responsible industry leadership and a sustainable approach to business.     

The company promise, “Protects what's good," reflects its vision to commit to making food safe and available, everywhere.