Tetra Pak R500m upgrade: A marriage of commitment and collaboration

Tetra Pak has been an integral part of SA’s food packaging landscape for more than 40 years. In October last year, the Swedish food processing and packaging group announced a R500m upgrade to its Pinetown plant in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.

This investment reinforces the company's commitment to the growth and success of its local operations and is a testament to its vision to “make food safe and available, everywhere”. It also aligns with president Cyril Ramaphosa's initiative of bringing foreign investment into the country.

The Pinetown plant upgrade will take place over two years. It began in the first quarter of 2022 with permit applications and infrastructure development. The technical design and building plans are finalised and tender documents have been provided to several local contractors.

The multimillion-rand upgrade will result in numerous benefits for the company and its customers:

• It will increase production capability, allowing Tetra Pak to extend its reach and serve more customers in the southern African region at a competitive cost;
• It will allow the production of the latest packaging formats using state-of-the-art technology, which will mean less imports; and
• The introduction of a new creasing tool will reduce lead time for customers from 45 days to 11 days delivering significant savings in working capital reduction.

While Tetra Pak's investment was primarily a business decision, it cannot be ignored that it represents a timely morale booster for KwaZulu-Natal, and SA as a whole.

Upgrading the Pinetown plant will create many direct and indirect job opportunities throughout the liquid food industry value chain. It presents numerous possibilities for the surrounding local communities and proactively contributes to the growth and rebuilding of the province.

Partnership and co-operation are essential in enabling Tetra Pak to unlock the full potential its R500m investment holds. This requires the support and collaboration of all concerned entities: the Tetra Pak team, outsourced contractors and builders, national and local government’s provision of permits, efficiency at ports to allow equipment into supply chains, and stock management.

In Ramaphosa's state of the nation address in February, he said an environment must be created in which the private sector can invest and unleash the dynamism of the economy. He added that a substantial increase in local production is a critical priority and highlighted the importance of creating job opportunities to support the livelihood of people. 

This was reiterated by KwaZulu-Natal’s premier Sihle Zikalala in his state of the province address when he committed to introduce broad economic initiatives to attract sustainable investment to boost the provincial economy.

Stats SA’s announcement that SA's economy expanded by 1.2% in the fourth quarter of 2021, and that annual real GDP increased by 4.9% last year, puts the country on an upward trajectory. This should be seen as an incentive for continued economic expansion.

In the spirit of momentum and growth, support from all stakeholders is critical to realising the potential that Tetra Pak's investment can bring. The government has done its bit in promptly granting the required permits — the first critical step in getting this project off the ground. The company encourages all players to follow suit and be single-minded about meeting obligations and enabling development to nurture this glimmer of economic hope the country so badly needs.

This article was paid for by Tetra Pak Southern Africa.