With the focus on liquid-based food and beverage categories, the new Product Development Centre brings world-class pilot production capabilities and end-to-end innovation support closer to food and beverage manufacturers across the region
Tetra Pak has officially opened its latest Product Development Centre (PDC) in Rayong, Thailand, to support food and beverage manufacturers across Asia Pacific (APAC) in taking new products from concept to production.
Southeast Asia, as one of the fastest-growing sub-regions within APAC, is seeing strong momentum in food and beverage innovation, driven by urbanisation, rising middle-class consumption and demand for healthier, functional products. This has driven functional beverage market launches across the region to grow in double digits of around 15 % year-on-year.
To meet this momentum, Tetra Pak has strengthened its innovation ecosystem in APAC to help food and beverage manufacturers in the region accelerate product development and bring new ideas to market more efficiently. With its integrated capabilities and strategic positioning, the ecosystem is well-placed to support food and beverage producers across the APAC region.
Julia Luscher, Vice President, Marketing at Tetra Pak, comments: “Across Asia Pacific, we are seeing strong demand for higher-value, more differentiated food and beverage products. To compete regionally and globally, manufacturers need faster validation cycles, more efficient development, and the ability to scale with confidence. Tetra Pak Product Development Centre’s global network provides that platform, bringing together our capabilities in product innovation and processing excellence with a strong regional ecosystem for food innovation. This will help manufacturers accelerate product development and support more sustainable growth across the industry.
Spanning 40,000 sq. ft., the facility brings together two integrated areas: the Liquid Food Solutions and the Food Development Facility. Equipped with semi-industrial, end-to-end pilot plants for both aseptic and non-aseptic applications, the PDC supports six high-growth, liquid-based food and beverage categories spanning dairy, beverages (juice, nectars, still drinks, coffee, and tea), plant-based foods, ice cream, food applications including Tetra Recart® culinary and porridge dishes, and food supplements and nutrition.
Together, these capabilities enable food and beverage manufacturers to:
- Validate recipes and processes before commercial roll-out, reducing risk and enhancing product quality.
- Optimise investment in development by trialling sensitive or high-value ingredients under near-identical conditions to full-scale production.
- Accelerate time-to-market through end-to-end support, from laboratory recipe development through pilot-scale trials to process optimisation.
- Support regional product development by enabling manufacturers to test new ingredients, formulations and processes close to actual production, while gaining access to capabilities across Tetra Pak’s global network of Product Development Centres, each tailored to different food and beverage categories.
- Gain confidence in product launches through sensory testing, nutritional analysis, shelf-life studies and consumer research conducted on-site.
The centre features dedicated laboratories and a team of food scientists, bioprocess engineers and process specialists, ensuring every customer trial is backed by rigorous science and industry expertise. Designed to serve manufacturers of all sizes, the PDC provides access to pilot production facilities, technical guidance and quality validation processes that would otherwise require significant capital investment.
This investment builds on Tetra Pak’s growing presence across the APAC region. From the expansion of its packaging material production plant in Binh Duong, Vietnam to building innovation capabilities in Rayong, Thailand, Tetra Pak is positioning itself at the centre of the region’s growth, serving its customers with full-scale reliability and innovative solutions.
Marcelo Perazzo, Managing Director Tetra Pak Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines & Indonesia (MSPI), “The PDC in Rayong is designed to support manufacturers across the region with hands-on product development, helping them bring to market innovations that are not only technically sound, but also relevant, differentiated and scalable in today’s competitive landscape. This reflects Tetra Pak’s commitment to enabling customers across Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia to innovate with confidence, backed by our Product Development Centres’ global network.”
The Rayong PDC is now officially open, joining Tetra Pak’s global network of 12 Product Development Centres. The commercial trials for customers is expected to begin in Q2 2026.
Tetra Pak has won the Microsoft Intelligent Manufacturing Award (MIMA) 2026 in the Scale! category for its next-generation automation and digital portfolio, Tetra Pak® Factory OS™. The Scale! award recognises intelligent industrial solutions leading the way in the breadth of value chains, clients or internal processes they impact, across different levels of maturity.
Tetra Pak® Factory OS™ is a suite of modular, open and scalable smart factory technologies designed for food and beverage production. By unifying automation, data and analytics into a consistent, factorywide operating environment, it connects equipment regardless of age or supplier, transforming fragmented factory data into a unified, contextualised, real-time view.
The judges recognised Tetra Pak® Factory OS™ for its ability to help food and beverage producers expand output, introduce new products more quickly and reduce production costs in an increasingly challenging geopolitical and economic environment. As rising food prices and input costs place pressure on food producers, the platform enables food and beverage producers to improve efficiency and strengthen operational resilience while safeguarding product quality.
Deployable across sites with varying levels of digital maturity, Tetra Pak® Factory OS™ strengthens operational performance, accelerates digital transformation at scale and opens new growth opportunities by bringing coherence, repeatability and intelligence to endtoend factory operations. Built with security-by-design and layered defences to protect operations and data amid today’s heightened geopolitical cyber risk, it provides an AI-ready foundation that turns real-time data into contextualised insights for faster, smarter decisions.
The Microsoft Intelligent Manufacturing Award (MIMA) recognises innovative industrial solutions that drive measurable impact through intelligent manufacturing technologies. Granted by Microsoft and Roland Berger, the award followed a competitive evaluation process. Tetra Pak was shortlisted and presented its solution to an independent jury before being named winner in the Scale! category. Tetra Pak® Factory OS™ will be formally recognised at Hannover Messe on 22 April 2026.
Tetra Pak has collaborated with a leading company in the European juices, nectars and soft drinks markets to launch the new Tetra Prisma® Aseptic 300 Edge beverage carton. This innovative portion package stands out on the shelf, with its distinct look and ergonomic design catering to the preference of modern consumers for taller, slimmer packaging. Research1 shows that, with buyers rethinking discretionary spending, a ‘less is more’ design approach is gaining in popularity, characterised by pared back simplicity. Designed for ease of use, the shape of the new paper-based carton package also makes it more comfortable to hold, particularly for smaller hands. Its wide opening ensures a steady flow for easy drinking, while its compact size makes it convenient for on-the-go consumption.
Product wastage is minimised by combining the slanted top of the Tetra Prisma® Aseptic 300 Edge carton with a DreamCap™ 26 Pro tethered closure. This helps to prevent litter too, as the cap stays attached to the package; therefore, it can be collected alongside the carton once consumers have enjoyed their drink and put the container in the correct bin for recycling.
In addition, the leading European juice brand opted for increasing the renewable share of material in the package to over 85 %, and this translated to reducing the carbon footprint of this carton by 76 %.2 This is achieved by combining paperboard from forests certified to Forest Stewardship Council™ (FSC™) and other controlled sources with plant-based polymers, derived from responsibly sourced sugarcane. Its reduced climate impact is set to appeal to young consumers, who are more likely to make environmentally conscious purchasing decisions (as found in research from Harvard Business Review).3
The Tetra Prisma® Aseptic 300 Edge is ideal for a wide range of on-the-go beverages, including dairy, juices and functional drinks. Available on the latest Tetra Pak® A3/CompactFlex filling machine, as well as on existing lines through a simple, cost-efficient upgrade, it brings the packaging configurations4 on a single filling machine to five. This versatility enables a quick switching between different packaging sizes and different opening systems, optimising production efficiency5 and broadening the range of on-the-go offerings. The latter helps food and beverage (F&B) brands to select the package that best matches specific consumption needs, therefore, attracting an even wider audience.
When it comes to transportation, the taller and slimmer shape of the package means it is possible to fit around the same number of litres and up to 10 % more packages per pallet,6 meaning fewer shipments while delivering more product.
Francesco Faella, Vice President Business Sector Ambient, Tetra Pak, comments: “By collaborating with a leading European juice brand and launching the Tetra Prisma® Aseptic 300 Edge, we are answering the industry’s call for added flexibility and stylish design options to help brands stand out on the shelf. Importantly, we are doing this while also addressing consumer preferences and expectations. Based on our recent global research7, environmental concerns remain high for 76 % of respondents, with over 60 % choosing products that have environmentally sound packaging in a bid to protect future generations and one fifth showing preference for containers made of renewable materials.”
1Tetra Pak-WGSN Design Trend Forecast 2023-2024
2Source: Carbon Trust™-verified Tetra Pak ‘Carton CO2 Calculator’ model version 10 (valid from April 2024). Scope: cradle-to-grave measurement of a Tetra Prisma® Aseptic 300 Edge carton with plant-based packaging materials and additional materials (i.e. cap) compared to a standard Tetra Prisma® Aseptic 300 Edge with fossil-based plastic. Geography: EU Industry data. For more information, visit carbontrust.com/tetrapak
3https://hbr.org/2023/09/research-consumers-sustainability-demands-are-rising
4The five packaging configurations include the following: Tetra Prisma® Aseptic 200 Edge with straw; Tetra Prisma® Aseptic 200 Edge with DreamCap™ 26 closure or DreamCap™ 26 Pro tethered closure; Tetra Prisma® Aseptic 250 Edge with straw; Tetra Prisma® Aseptic 250 Edge with DreamCap™ 26 closure or DreamCap™ 26 Pro tethered closure; Tetra Prisma® Aseptic 300 Edge with DreamCap™ 26 closure or DreamCap™ 26 Pro tethered closure.
5Addition of three formats in Quick Change, with Tetra Prisma® Aseptic 200 Edge and Tetra Prisma® Aseptic 250 Edge, hence improved flexibility and efficiency when compared with Tetra Prisma® Aseptic 330 Square.
6Compared with the Tetra Prisma® Aseptic 330 package in EU pallet with WASF open ends.
7Tetra Pak’s latest Sustainable Packaging consumer research, run in 2023, comprised a total of 14,500 consumer interviews based on an online questionnaire in 29 markets: Germany, France, UK, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, South Africa, Egypt, China, India, Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Philippines, South Korea, Vietnam, Brazil, USA, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina.
Tetra Pak has launched Tetra Pak® Plant Secure, a game-changing plant management service that delivers profitability improvements for customers.
The new service starts with a detailed audit of all the equipment and systems across the customer’s value chain. This analysis, combined with Tetra Pak’s deep knowledge of the industry and benchmark data on food manufacturing, enables its specialists to identify opportunities and implement improvements across the customer’s entire operation. All Tetra Pak Plant Secure contracts come with targets around operational expenditure reduction and capital expenditure optimisation.
Dennis Jönsson, President and CEO of Tetra Pak Group said: “Our investment in Industry 4.0 technologies such as artificial intelligence, automation and data velocity has enabled us to better-support our customers in the digital era. Tetra Pak Plant Secure is a great example of how we use new technology to broaden our perspective and deliver bottom-line benefits for our customers.”
Pilot projects have been carried out in the Americas and in Europe, delivering results that are above customer expectations. For example, an Americas-based dairy producer reduced operational costs by more than 10 % in the first year of implementation, and the project continues to deliver further savings.
Tetra Pak Plant Secure is being rolled out to all food and beverage companies around the world.
