THINK GLOBAL, PACK LOCAL

Tetra Pak’s Greater Middle East and Africa (GME&A) head, Amar Zahid, brings a highly international perspective to sustaining his cluster’s growth and driving sustainability. 

While he sees himself as Scottish, Tetra Pak’s new head for its Greater Middle East and Africa cluster brings plenty of regional experience – plus far wider multinational insights.

“I was born in Iraq, grew up in Czechoslovakia and then in Scotland,” he told Packaging MEA.

“I’ve been working in the Middle East for 15 years, but for the last five years I moved to Japan with Tetra Pak.”

Having joined Tetra Pak in 1994, Zahid became general manager of Tetra Pak Arabia in 2003 then managing director in 2007. In 2010 he relocated as managing director for the firm’s operations in Japan and president for Northeast Asia and Oceania.

“We operate in 178 countries and we share instantly any experience we gain from another region and make it available to our customers – whether it’s new products, legislation, issues that are faced by our customers,” he said.

“Tetra Pak as a whole has provided that experience, not just me.”

Zahid’s return to the Middle East coincides with a global restructure at Tetrapak, bringing together the Middle East and Africa into a single, highly promising region.

“It has one of the fastest growing populations in the world,” he said.

“The region also has a young population while everybody else is having an ageing population, so there are a lot of opportunities for growth.”

At the recent Gulfood trade show in Dubai, where Zahid is based, Tetra Pak displayed its interest in the region by bringing half its global leaders’ team including the company’s CEO and president.

“This is to show how committed we are to our customers in this region,” he said.

“We want to be with them, talk to them, address their issues and build relationships.”

Environment: ‘a must’

Tetra Pak’s presence at the expo also included a booth dedicated to sustainability, underscoring the firm’s environmental as well as commercial objectives.

“It may not have been as busy as other

booths, but our sustainability booth does have customers who are interested in sustainable products,” said Zahid.

“It will take a little bit of time but people, even local customers, are interested in sustainable packaging. You’d be surprised how many local customers are becoming quite advanced technologically and have access to the latest innovations.”

In addition to his adherence to “tough targets for environmental activities” set within the company, Zahid returns to the Middle East with fresh memories of East Asia’s scrupulous ecological habits.

“In Japan, people are extremely conscientious about the environment and they are the only people I see that, when they use a carton, they cut it with scissors, dry it, and when they collect enough, they send it for recycling,” he said.

In the Middle East, he concedes, many consumers have recently had far more on their minds than the environment.

“But that doesn’t mean that people

are not aware of it, or they don’t prefer companies that are more environmentally friendly,” he said.

“You cannot charge more for it, but it can cost you a lot more if you don’t address environmental issues.”

Tetra Pak is working closely with other companies on collecting and recycling products for new uses.

“We have also introduced FSC certification in South Africa,” he said. “We will also be introducing this in the Middle East. We also work very closely with our suppliers of raw material to promote FSC

and make sure that we get the increased share of that product our packages.”

In his view, the environment is “no longer an option: it is a ‘must’ ” – demanded by “consumers, customers, retailers”.

“We are very happy that we started earlier on, so are well on our way to achieve it,” he said.

“We rate our logistics companies on their environmental profile rather than only on price – even the ships we use follow the same strict rules… Tetra Pak is known globally as ‘the environment company’ for packaging.”

Regional goals

Gulfood gathered an estimated 550 regional customers across Tetra Pak’s three lines: packaging material, capital equipment, and technical service and support.

In the region, the company’s manufacturing quality “even exceeds quality in Europe”, according to Zahid.

“All three factories that we have in the Middle East are world-class manufacturing factories, which shows you can get the talent here if you put the right processes and discipline,” he said.

The company also now offers “the widest and broadest portfolio” it ever has, he added.

“Today our wealth of products is so wide that we can provide any solution that customers ask for,” he said.

“We are day-by-day building greenfield factories in Africa, investing in higher speeds, in more environmentally friendly and efficient machines in terms of usage of utilities and usage of water.”

Tetra Pak is already delivering a “hyper- speed machine” that double output to 40,000 units. “It offers a huge amount of efficiency to our customers,” he said.

With a forecast growth in GME&A this year of 4–5%, Tetra Pak is confident that oil market turbulence will not sap the appetite for such innovations.

“We feel that the economies here are quite solid,” he said. “They have healthy GDPs and they will sustain that, so we don’t see it as a problem in consumption. We see it as a good sign maybe for registered cost and other costs.”.