Tetra Pak to expand manufacturing for sustainable solutions in Europe

Tetra Pak has announced an ambitious investment program dedicated to its factory in Châteaubriant, specialised in the production of caps. Spanning across a three-year period (late 2021-2023), this €100 million project will support the plant’s transition to the production of tethered caps by 2024. Tethered caps help to minimise litter, as the cap will stay attached to the package.

This step – that is in addition to the company’s commitment to invest approximately €100 million per year over the next 5-10 years to develop more sustainable packaging solutions - is key to ensuring that Tetra Pak’s customers in Europe will be ready to comply with the Single Use Plastics (SUP) Directive, an integral part of the wider approach announced in the Plastics Strategy and an important element of the EU Circular Economy Action Plan.

Tethered cap (Photo: Tetra Pak) 

Charles Brand, President of Tetra Pak Europe & Central Asia, comments: "We are particularly proud of this investment project, which demonstrates how we consistently strive to provide customers with sustainable innovations and meet the rapidly changing demands of regulators and society. High-performance food packaging plays a critical role in feeding the world, but it must do so sustainably, so that food availability does not come at the cost of the planet.”

The Châteaubriant plant is a key manufacturing facility for Tetra Pak, serving food and beverage manufacturers globally, with a production capacity of approximately 5 billion caps in 2020. Awarded last year with the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) Advanced Products certification, the factory is also equipped to produce additional materials integrating attributed recycled polymers. Today, the site covers an area of over 30,000 sqm and features 19 lines dedicated to the manufacture of 6 types of caps.

The investment will be spread over two phases. The first one begins in late 2021, where the company will enlarge the industrial site to accommodate a 30% increase in manufacturing capacity through the installation of ten additional lines that will be dedicated to the production of tethered caps. Then, between 2022 and 2023, approximately 50% of the existing lines will be replaced, again to expand the access of F&B players to tethered caps.