Strong performance in an evolving landscape
The landscape for our industry continued to evolve in 2023. Sustained higher inflation, lower consumption, a more cost-focused value chain, increasing regulation especially with regards sustainability, localisation and market fragmentation are combining to create a new operating environment for food and beverage manufacturers. In such a fluctuating environment, value becomes more important than ever – for our customers, for consumers and for Tetra Pak. Within this landscape we achieved net sales growth of 5.4 per cent in 2023, with good growth seen for all our three businesses supporting a strong profitability and cash flow performance.
We increased our total net sales to €12.8 billion,1 delivering 179 billion packs globally, which is equivalent to 71 billion litres of food and beverages. Our three businesses – Packaging Solutions, Processing Solutions and Services – grew by 4.5 per cent, 9.7 per cent and 11.8 per cent, respectively. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our customers for their continued trust in us, and all our employees for their continued commitment, expertise and performance in 2023. Because creating value is how we fulfil our purpose – We commit to making food safe and available, everywhere, and we promise to protect what’s good: food, people and the planet.
Creating value for our planet
This includes creating value for our planet. The theme of this year’s report is mitigating climate change. This is a key focus area for our sustainability agenda at Tetra Pak, along with circularity, nature, social sustainability and food systems. Because fulfilling our purpose requires us to take an interconnected approach to sustainability. A very important milestone was achieved in this regard in 2023 with the launch of our aseptic beverage carton featuring a paper-based barrier. Made of approximately 80 per cent paperboard, the package increases the renewable content to 90 per cent, reduces its carbon footprint by one third (33 per cent)2 and has been certified as Carbon Neutral by the Carbon Trust™.3 This brings us one step closer to our ambition of a beverage carton made solely from responsibly sourced renewable or recycled materials, fully recyclable and carbon neutral.
We have also recently been recognised for leadership in corporate transparency and performance on climate change, forests and, for the first time, water security, by global environmental non-profit CDP, securing a place on its annual ‘A List’. Based on data reported through CDP’s 2023 Forests questionnaire, Tetra Pak is one of a handful (2 per cent) of players that achieved an ‘A’ score out of over 21,000 companies assessed4. We also reported on climate change and water security, recording an ‘A-‘ score on both, cementing our inclusion in the CDP leadership band again.
Protecting the planet by creating value across our sustainability agenda will remain a priority for us at Tetra Pak, and we know it is a priority for our customers and society also. We look forward to releasing our latest Sustainability Report later in 2024.
Delivering with our strategy
Lead the sustainability transformation is one of our four strategic pillars of course, along with deliver food safety and the best quality, integrate and optimise customer operations, and innovate for customer growth. We achieved in all these areas in 2023. For example, we launched the Tetra Pak® E3/Speed Hyper, which uses eBeam technology for packaging material sterilisation. This lowers environmental impacts with less power (up to 30 per cent), water (up to 45 per cent) and chemicals (99 per cent), while enabling a 10 per cent reduction in customer operational cost.5 And it’s the fastest filling machine in the aseptic carton industry, producing up to 40,000 portion packages per hour.
We also announced a new collaboration with AB Biotek Human Nutrition & Health to introduce a range of innovative postbiotic food solutions, launched a new research hub with Lund University in Sweden called Biotech Heights that will explore food and materials production using bioprocessing, and introduced new services and processing innovations such as our Tetra Pak Direct UHT unit. Our customers also continued to take advantage of our automation and digital solutions, helping them to increase packaging efficiency, reduce energy consumption and decrease the total cost of production.
Helping our teams to be more dynamic, productive and capable
The foundation of our strategy is focused on how we work, and becoming more dynamic, productive and capable. Over 15,800 colleagues learnt new skills and capabilities at our internal 2023 Learning Conference, which was just one example of how we help all our employees on this journey. We do this because we know that investing in our people, giving them the best possible workplace to create and deliver value for customers, is critical to our success.
Navigating the new landscape in 2024
This year will remain an evolving and challenging landscape. Inflation will continue to dampen consumption and increase costs, especially those related to labour. In response we will look to maximise sales opportunities where possible, while being disciplined with our cost control and selective about where we place our resources.
Accelerated regionalisation and supply chain constraints could also offer continued challenges, but as a global company with a local presence we are positioned well to succeed in regional markets. We can also take confidence from the value we created in 2023. In summary, we will continue to navigate our industry’s new landscape cautiously but confidently – both with, and for, our customers.
Adolfo Orive
1 All figures at 2023 prevailing rates.
2 Certified by the Carbon Trust™ - benchmark: Tetra Brik® Aseptic 200 Slim Leaf carton package with aluminium foil layer.
3‘Carbon neutral’ means that, after reducing the CO2 emissions by converting the package’s fossil-based polymers into plant-based polymers to the highest possible extent, the residual CO2 emissions associated with the packaging manufacture are offset by funding Gold Standard-certified climate projects around the world.
4 The full methodology and criteria for the ‘A List’ is available on CDP’s website at: https://www.cdp.net/en/companies/companies-scores.
5 Compared to the Tetra Pak® A3/Speed.