JEDDAH, 9 January 2005 — Tetra Pak Saudi Arabia has been named Market Company of the Year 2004 by Tetra Pak Global out of over 55 Tetra Pak market companies.
To mark the occasion, Nils Bjorkman, Tetra Pak market operations president, visited the company and gave an exclusive interview to Arab News along with the managing director of the company, Amar Zahid, and the vice president of Greater Middle East, Francis Goodenday.
“There are several factors that made Tetra Pak Saudi Arabia the company of the year including customer service, sales, and technical service,” Bjorkman said. “When we evaluate a company’s sales and performance we not only look at one year but over the past three years on how it has improved,” he said.
Tetra Pak Saudi Arabia is part of the Swedish Tetra Laval Group, the world’s leading supplier of processing and packaging solutions for food products, operating in more than 165 markets with over 20,000 employees and a turnover in excess of 7 billion euros. The company has been present in Saudi Arabia since the 1950s and has always regarded the Kingdom as one of its most important markets. Tetra Pak Saudi Arabia established and inaugurated its factory in 1998, the first Tetra Pak “Greenfield” packaging development in the world to incorporate both fiber and plastic technologies within one complex. After another two years, and a total investment of $70 million, the company expanded its operations to spread over 43,000 square meters and opened the most technically advanced packaging factory in both the Kingdom and the region.
This latest development allowed the company to recruit and train more local manpower resources. “Our policy is to invest, recruit and train local labor,” said Bjorkman. Zahid pointed out that 40 percent of their employees now are Saudis and intend to take the figure to 60 percent in two years. “Some of our best employees are Saudis and I think one of the reasons for low foreign investment here is this wrong perception of Saudi labor,” said Zahid.
Tetra Pak runs various programs to attract more local talent such as the recent Jeddah Technical College Apprentice Program where 14 selected students are now being trained in the factory for potential jobs and another group will be selected soon. “Investing in the local labor market is good for business and here it has been a great success,” said Goodenday.
A large part of the factory’s production is being consumed in Saudi Arabia, but the company also exports packaging material to at least 24 countries around the Middle East, Europe and Asia. Tetra Pak Saudi Arabia produces both carton and PET packaging. It is now one of the best Tetra Pak factories in the world with the second lowest total waste and fourth largest producer globally.
The Jeddah carton factory is also one of the few self-sufficient factories with its own power plant and water desalination plant in order to manage resources in the best way. Recycling of factory waste is managed through a series of Environmental Performance Indicators. “Environment awareness is low here but growing. There is now a government agency concerned with the environment and putting laws and regulations which is part of our system,” said Zahid. “Environment regulations add to our costs initially but we think of it as long term investment and continue to invest in it,” said Bjorkman.
Worldwide, Tetra Pak actively supports environmental activities.
“We are a mid-size company and our competition include glass bottles and cans but we want to give the best product that meets the customer’s needs as a whole package,” said Bjorkman.
As for foreign investment in Saudi Arabia, Bjorkman said that his impression is that it has always been a friendly investment environment but now there is a bigger push for attracting foreign investment. “Every country has its laws and bureaucracies, but we adapt to the local system and I expect there will be more foreign investment here,” he added. “It has been slow to change but some of the changes brought about in the past few years such as lowering corporate taxes from 40 percent to 20 percent will help attract foreign investment,” said Zahid.
This has not been Bjorkman’s first visit to Jeddah. He came here in 1977 and he is amazed by the development. “It was then considered mainly a harbor and the ‘new airport’ was being built, but now it’s a sprawling modern city. Tremendous changes. And I have always been fascinated by the religion and Saudi culture,” he said.
