KUALA LUMPUR, July 22 — Tetra Pak is reinforcing its role in supporting food and beverage manufacturers beyond packaging, helping customers develop new products and respond to rapidly evolving consumer trends.
This is in line with growing demand from food and beverage manufacturers for partners that can support the innovation process from product development through to commercial production as consumer preferences continue to evolve.
Tetra Pak Marketing Director for Market Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, and Indonesia (MSPI), John Jose said manufacturers today require more than packaging solutions, as shorter product cycles and shifting consumer preferences are driving companies to bring new products to market more quickly.
“We’re supporting customers throughout their innovation journey, from developing a new product idea right through to commercial production. It’s an end-to-end ecosystem that brings together product development, processing expertise, packaging solutions and our co-packing network,” he said.
Consumer trends are driving faster innovation
Jose said consumer expectations have expanded beyond taste and quality, with health, convenience, sustainability and transparency increasingly influencing purchasing decisions.
“Changing lifestyles and consumption patterns require shorter product cycles and agile innovation,” he said.
At the same time, he noted that manufacturers are contending with rising raw material and utility costs, labour shortages and intense competition, making it increasingly important to shorten product development cycles while responding quickly to market trends.
To support this, Tetra Pak combines consumer insights with its Customer Innovation Centres and Product Development Centres, where manufacturers can prototype, test and refine new products before investing in commercial production.
“We continuously track consumer behaviour and market trends to identify opportunities in categories such as functional drinks, ready-to-drink coffee, plant-based products and convenient meals.
“Instead of shutting down their own production line to run a test batch, they can use our pilot facilities to prototype, test and validate new concepts rapidly before moving to commercial production,” he said.
Betting on a new protein source
Among the areas Tetra Pak sees as offering the strongest growth opportunities is protein-based nutrition, with the company pioneering sunflower protein as a new ingredient platform for beverage manufacturers.
“Protein is one that we are betting on,” Jose said.
The protein — sunflower protein — is intended to complement, rather than replace, established plant proteins such as soy, pea and oat, giving manufacturers another avenue for innovation as they develop differentiated products for the growing functional beverage market.
“From our market research, we found that soybean drinks were beverages for an earlier generation, and its popularity has somewhat declined, so there is not much that we can move on from there.