Tetra Pak, a supplier of food processing and packaging systems for dairies and other industries, said net sales for 2013 rose 3.5% to €11.1 billion.

Packaging Solutions include Tetra Prisma Aseptic and Tetra Brik Aseptic Edge

The company's Packaging Solutions business reported net sales for the year of €9.6 billion, with packaging material volumes rising 3% compared with 2012, as the company delivered more than 178 billion packs to customers worldwide.

Around 27% of this volume came from Tetra Pak's advanced product portfolio; which features a range of shapes, formats and openings designed specifically to meet customer demand for improved functionality, greater brand differentiation or a stronger environmental profile. This compares with a 21% share in 2012, and reflects particularly strong year-on-year growth in Tetra Prisma Aseptic portion packs and Tetra Brik Aseptic Edge 1 liter, up 35% and 75% respectively.

The packaging business also reported solid growth in Capital Equipment, with sales climbing 15% from 2012 on the back of more than 580 new filling machines deliveries across the globe, led by healthy demand from customers in Greater China and Central & South America

And Technical Service (TS) within Packaging Solutions reported similarly strong gains, increasing net sales by 11% year-on-year, with significant growth in Service contracts, which now account for around 25% of the total TS business, compared with 20% in 2012.

Processing Solutions shows solid gains in new equipment sales to the beverage and prepared food categories

Sales within Processing Solutions reached €1.5 billion in 2013, up 16% year-on-year, with solid growth in all markets.

Excluding acquisitions, growth was 13%, reflecting a healthy increase in Technical Sales and Service, which climbed 15% year-on-year, and solid gains in new equipment sales to the beverage and prepared food categories, up 19% and 15% respectively.

The company saw further success with the development of scaled-down versions of some of its market-leading Processing technologies, including the launch of Tetra Alcross RO Lite, Tetra Therm Aseptic Flex 1, Tetra Therm Aseptic Drink 1 and Tetra Albatch 1. These products have proved particularly popular with customers in emerging markets, and with fledgling businesses seeking robust and reliable processing solutions at relatively low investment costs.

The year also saw the Processing business consolidate its position as market leader in filtration systems for milk, cheese and whey applications, with September's acquisition of DSS Silkeborg, a specialist membrane filtration technology company based in Denmark. This follows the 2012 acquisition of Filtration Engineering, and provides Tetra Pak with important in-house expertise in areas such as reverse osmosis, nano-filtration, ultra-filtration and micro-filtration. The business is now focused on applying and developing these technologies across a range of different Processing-related applications.

Source: TetraPak, via PRNewswire