Functional fancy…Tetra Pak US CEO targets high-value beverage growth

Brian Kennell (pictured) is a 23-year veteran of Tetra Pak, and was appointed to his current role this summer; he told this website that the company sees real potential in niche high value food and beverage categories, which nonetheless still deliver volumes due to the size of the North American market.

“If you look at categories like, say, white milk where Tetra Pak has its core in Europe and in other markets, then we’ve not grown as much in those particular areas, although we do see future growth opportunities,”​ Kennell tells us in this exclusive podcast recorded at Pack Expo 2014 in Chicago.

“Look at the US market and the Canadian market specifically, there are very big opportunities for some of these more functional beverages, more nutritional beverages, other food products where we are gaining more of a footprint,”​ he adds.

Asked why Tetra Pak was better placed than suppliers of other packaging formats (cans, say, or PET) to meet these needs, Kennell points to the company’s status as an integrated machine and packaging equipment supplier.

“We can supply a lot of insight to customers, be it on an emerging consumer trend or an emerging market trend with existing or new products,”​ he says.

“Consumers are much more focused on higher value, in the products they do consume. They’re also much more demanding in terms of a higher sustainability footprint,”​ Kennell adds.

“They’re also much more demanding on the product’s nutritional, functional and health benefits,”​ he says.