Tetra-Pak shuts down manufacturing in Australia – news commentary by Andy McCourt

That’s the harsh reality of a media statement issued by Tetra Pak’s public relations company exclusively to Print 21online. For 28 years the iconic Tetra-Pak food and drink cartons have been produced at Fairfield where the manufacturing and print quality have been a benchmark of all that is good in food packaging.

Protect what is good is Tetra Pak’s slogan. Australian jobs and domestic packaging manufacture do not appear to be under this category, but perhaps the real reason lies not with Tetra Pak, an employer universally praised by workers we spoke to, but with the arid desert that is the Federal Liberal-National Party coalition government’s manufacturing policy. There just is no manufacturing policy coming out of Canberra, except its implied approval for large companies to take jobs and manufacturing offshore.

Last week I posed ten questions to Tetra Pak but as of our deadline no answers were forthcoming. Federal Secretary of the AMWU’s printing division, Steve Walsh was more forthcoming:

“ We remain very concerned that there is no clear-cut policy for manufacturing in Australia. Companies are therefore dropping the ball and abandoning manufacturing in this country. We are very concerned indeed about that.

“Companies have responsibilities to Australian workers and consumers. So often when manufacturing is sent offshore it is to places where low-paid and suppressed workers are denied their human rights. Occupational Health and Safety remains a huge issue.”

An employee within Tetra Pak, soon to lose his job, stated, “Look, there is a sense of sadness here – some people have worked here for 25 years – but Tetra Pak has been a fantastic company to work for and they are doing everything possible to help us find new jobs, sending us on courses, giving us time off to attend interviews and so forth.

“They’ve paid good wages and we don’t know if we’ll be able to match that. It gets down to costs I suppose – that’s the reality of the economy. In a broader sense it’s the government’s fault – they do not encourage manufacturing and do nothing when firms decide to move offshore.”


My Call

Gutted. Yet another manufacturing plant and the skills and jobs that go with it taking flight from Australia. Not one iota of resistance to this cost-cutting move has been put up by the government or any association. Tetra Pak is part of Tetra Laval, now based in Switzerland. It has operations in 165 countries. In 2005, Tetra Laval reported a five per cent increase in global sales, delivering 110 billion packages worldwide. It employs 29,540 people and turned over $15 billion.

Pardon my ignorance, but wouldn’t you think a government would be actively courting such companies to expand manufacturing in Australia, rather than glibly waving the jobs, skills and tax dollars off into the sunset? Other governments do – they make it attractive to manufacture in their countries, why can’t Australia?

But losing food packaging manufacture is especially galling since it’s the last interface between safe manufacture and our intestinal systems. Contamination happens where controls are not as strict. In one recent week alone, the EU had 60 reports of food contamination, including arsenic, benzene, Isopropyl Thioxanthone (IPX), Lithium, Carbon Monoxide, a toxic colourant called Sudan 1 and Ochratoxin.

The IPX contamination involved Tetra Pak and Nestlé milk products. The ink-curing chemical migrated through the packaging. Tetra Pak subsequently began phasing out the use of IPX in fatty liquid and juice products.

Food Packaging news reported that ‘China is a major source of reports made to the EU’s rapid alert system.’ Overall, there was a 52 per cent jump in reports about food contamination, mostly traced to outside of Europe, in cheap production countries.

So are Australian consumers of popular liquid food brands expected to trust the OH&S systems of far-off lands rather than locally-administered practices and inspections? Certainly food contamination can happen anywhere, including Australia but is it not better to have local checks and balances and be able to arrest health issues immediately?

Tetra Pak is but one of a fleeing brigade of manufacturers deserting Australia because, well they’re just allowed to and seemingly encouraged to. The buck stops fairly and squarely with the government.

We’re becoming a farm and quarry again, with a ‘bloody’ beach thrown in. Unless this changes, tell your kids not to bother with trade apprenticeships in printing, packaging or manufacturing – because there won’t be any jobs for them by the time they graduate.

Unless there’s a change. A very big change.


Here is Tetra Pak’s media statement in full.

“In alignment with the global strategy, Tetra Pak Australia will streamline its operations to remain the lowest cost supplier of tailored packaging solutions by sourcing gable top cartons from its global network.

Tetra Pak’s decision to implement a global sourcing strategy will deliver customer service at competitive pricing by sourcing from its larger and specialised factories.

Tetra Pak Australia’s Managing Director, Per Hausvik, said the company has implemented strategies aligned with the global direction in view of the current volumes produced in the Fairfield Production facility.

“Rationalisation of the Australian business will enable Tetra Pak to future-proof the company’s competitive position in the Australian market,” Mr Hausvik said.
“Decentralising production from Australia to Tetra Pak’s global packaging network will mean customers will have a greater choice of innovative products while still enjoying Tetra Pak’s local presence and high level of service.
“Australian customers can expect greater product sophistication of Tetra Rex Packaging printed in offset with a sixth panel, fully skived and Sahara bottom.
“It is deeply regrettable that the changes will result in the loss of 30 production and 20 administration employees.

“The changes – are nonetheless important to sustain Tetra Pak’s competitiveness and reinforce its long-standing market leadership in Australia.
“Tetra Pak accepts its responsibility to treat its employees fairly. This responsibility will be applied with equal importance to those employees who will be made redundant and to those employees remaining with the Company. Everything the Company does will be driven by that commitment.

“All affected employees will receive fair redundancy packages and extensive counseling support. Administration staff will receive extensive outplacement services, and production staff will receive support to prepare themselves for new employment,” he said.

The closure of the Fairfield production facility will be a phased process with the final closure to take place in quarter four 2006. As Tetra Pak prepares its business for a seamless transfer from local production to global sourcing.
Tetra Pak Australia will move to a new site in the next six to nine months.”

End of Tetra Pak Media statement