Tetra Pak net sales grow Euro 8.95 bn

Kolkata, Mar 9 : Tetra Pak, the world leader in food processing and packaging solutions, Tuesday announced net sales of Euro 8.95 billion in 2009—up 1.2 percent from 2008 in comparable terms.

Packaging Solutions reached €8.0 billion in net sales in 2009—an increase of 1.8 percent over 2008 while sales of Processing Solutions declined 3.8 percent in comparable terms to €917 million during this period.

Double-digit growth in South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Sub-Sahara Africa drove the rise in Packaging Solutions' sales, while East Europe and Central Asia were the most affected by the economic downturn, experiencing a 12.2 percent decline in net packaging sales year-over-year.

Though buoyed by a strong order backlog, sales of Processing Solutions were impacted by the difficult environment for capital equipment. Overall, group sales strengthened in the fourth quarter of 2009, increasing by 5.7 percent from the year-ago quarter.

"While we are encouraged by strong growth in the last quarter, we expect 2010 to be another challenging year, with continued uncertainty about the speed of the economic recovery. We remain focused on keeping our costs down and driving quality and operational efficiency to deliver value-driven solutions to our customers," said Tetra Pak President and CEO Dennis Jonsson.

"We will continue to invest in innovative technologies and products as well as plant infrastructure to meet the changing needs of the market," he added.

In 2009, Tetra Pak continued its planned investment in new plant and equipment around the world, inaugurating its new packaging material plant in Hohhot, Northern China which operates completely on power from renewable resources.

The €60 million plant brings total investment in the country to €250 million, with a total capacity of approximately 50 billion packs a year in its four Chinese plants.