Erik Wallenberg

"The year was 1953 and it had been seven years since Erik Wallenberg invented the tetrahedron. Only now was there a cream machine that worked. Ruben had waited long enough for the money to start flowing into the company. He was of the firm opinion that Tetra Pak could quickly sell 500 cream machines in Sweden alone. He based this view on the fact that there were about 600 dairies in the country and that at least 500 of them would easily agree to rent a machine from Tetra Pak. But in his great optimism, he forgot that most of Sweden’s dairies only produced cheese and butter. Their need for cream packaging was, to say the least, non-existent. And among those who produced cream, only a few were large enough to afford to rent a separate packaging machine. Ruben also ignored the fact that the paper was still unreliable and that little Tetra Pak did not have the capacity to produce 500 machines. A realistic assessment of the sales opportunities indicated that the likely market encompassed about 60 machines. But Ruben refused to listen to what the marketing people said. In the end, they agreed to manufacture 100 machines. But even that was too much, the salespeople said."

"Ruben Rausing was far from alone in his skepticism. Erik Torudd saw the tetrahedron for the first time a few days later. He became thoughtful. He has described the event as “a shock.” The package looked like nothing else – not round and not square. And how would one be able to fill it? It was made in one piece. Erik Wallenberg was alone in understanding during the first week that he had really constructed a package that would work. That the little quirky package would lay the foundation for the Rausing family’s entry into the very exclusive circle of billionaires, no one realized. Not even the inventor himself, Erik Wallenberg."

"The first generation of employees, Harry Järund, Erik Torudd, Erik Wallenberg, and others, never fully experienced the fruits of their hard labor. They initiated the technology that was later developed and refined by their successors. The sales department, led by Erik Torudd, did a fantastic job in spreading the Tetra system to a large number of countries and contributed to rapid international expansion. During his time as Deputy CEO in charge of sales, Erik Torudd visited over 100 countries. The task of the salespeople was in a way completely hopeless; they were to sell a strangely designed and leaking package that no rational consumer wanted. But they succeeded."

"Suddenly, he saw in front of him how the package that had seemed impossible could be used after all. He understood how they would be filled: by first filling the tube with milk, then forming the tetrahedrons, and finally cutting them off individually, one would get a long line of filled tetrahedrons. Perhaps the package would be worth a try after all. The idea of continuous filling had been born. And it had only been a week or so since Erik Wallenberg first showed his tetrahedrons."

"While Ruben showed great satisfaction in finally having removed Holger from the circle of owners, he was also relieved that he wanted to stay on the board. He knew Holger’s good name meant a lot for the opportunities to take up new loans at Tetra Pak. He therefore quickly wrote to Marcus Wallenberg to inform him about the stock takeover, but also to emphasize that Holger would remain on the board. “A limited cooperation will therefore continue, which I am pleased to see,” he wrote in the letter. With the purchase of Holger’s shares, only one step remained for Ruben before the plan for a family-run empire, with his sons as the sole owners, could be realized: he had to remove the remaining six small owners. Therefore, he soon made deals with Torsten Jeppsson and Erik Wallenberg. They sold their shares at nine times par. Harry Järund, Gunnar Brime, and Erik Torudd, however, resisted the Rausing buyout proposals. None of them wanted to sell at the price Ruben had proposed. Erik Torudd did not want to sell at all. Not at any price."

"Without Holger Crafoord’s scouting in the USA in the early 1930s where he reported home about a single-use paper packaging for milk, Erik Wallenberg’s crucial invention in 1944 of a milk packaging in paper shaped like a tetrahedron, Erik Torudd’s ideas about continuous filling, and Harry Järund’s filling machine which solved the problem of producing an affordable packaging and which, through the efforts of many employees, led to an aseptic packaging system for milk and other liquid foods, the Rausing family’s mega-fortune would never have occurred. The story also shows the significance an innovation can have for communities, employees, owners, and other stakeholders, and that many of these stakeholders were also involved in the creation of the innovation. It is not entirely easy to go from an ingenious idea to realizing the idea and taking it out in the market and building up a multinational industrial conglomerate that spreads the innovation globally in the world and which is still market-leading after all these years."

"People often find it difficult to accept new inventions, simply because human capacity to think in new ways is limited. Therefore, Wallenberg also encountered skepticism when he showed what he had come up with. Even Ruben Rausing, who had “think differently” as one of his mottos, had a hard time embracing the little ingenious invention. A few days later, when he asked Erik Wallenberg to come up and show how things were going with the milk packages, Wallenberg placed a number of tetrahedrons on a tray and went up."

"what was decisive was that it was so cheap compared to what the competitors could offer. Thanks to Erik Wallenberg’s ingenious tetrahedral shape, the material usage was only half as much as for competing packaging. And this meant that even poor countries could afford the Tetra system. Tetra Pak’s method of packaging milk is indeed one of the very few Western industrial systems that have been able to be directly adopted by developing countries without major problems."

"Now, there was both a concrete packaging and an idea of how it could be filled. Rausing was convinced that they had found a superior solution for how milk should be packaged. He realized that the packaging could become a mass product that could be manufactured in gigantic quantities. If he just played his cards right, the royalty income from the production would be enormous. Ruben Rausing had sometimes played with the idea of making the family into an industrial dynasty of the same kind as the Wallenbergs. But so far, realism had held back his dreams. The milk packaging, on the other hand, made his imagination take off again. But for the dream to come true, all patents had to be written to him. Therefore, Erik Wallenberg transferred the ownership of the tetrahedron patent to Ruben Rausing in December that year."

"It was not until 1991 that Erik Wallenberg was publicly recognized when he was awarded the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences’ grand gold medal. But perhaps the finest, albeit informal, praise he received was already in the mid-fifties from the Danish Nobel laureate in physics, Professor Niels Bohr. “I have never seen such a distinguished practical application of a mathematical idea,” Bohr said in his quiet, almost shy manner when he visited the factory."

"When Ruben showed them what he and his energetic employees were working on, all three became enthusiastic and encouraged him to further develop the idea. It became a very important spur for Ruben. He had already been convinced that they were on the right track. But now, when he also received confirmation from people who did not work within the company, he became completely sure of his case. At the same time, he realized, in a moment of humility, that he could not do it without Holger, Torudd, Järund, and Erik Wallenberg. What he himself would take care of was the financing, his strong side. He was aware that he was about to take on a heavy, but completely necessary task. If it were to work, he had to build a tightly-knit team, where all members truly believed in the task. He decided to test the commitment and distribute the responsibilities at the next company dinner."

"When Ruben’s skepticism towards Erik Wallenberg’s tetrahedron finally eased and he began to be intrigued by its different shape – it stimulated his imagination – he chose to commit fully to it. Erik Torudd did the same, even though many in his surroundings told him he was completely crazy to waste time on that silly little paper pyramid. But what set Erik Torudd and Ruben apart from the detractors was that they really could see the potential in what was different. They were not as guided by conventions as most others. Both became completely convinced that the little tetrahedron would become a world product. But how big? Well, they didn’t even dare to speculate."

"“If I think about what they have meant to us - Erik Wallenberg, through his Tetra invention, Gunnar Brime through 27 years of activity in ÅR, Torsten Jeppsson through his devoted, tremendously hard work over many years, Harry Järund through his inventing activities, Stig Sunner through his scientific advising, Erik Torudd for his commitment to Tetra Pak from the very first minute, Göte Engfors through his 20-year, significantly underpaid directorship in our various companies, and Carl Borgström’s exceptionally important advising for our operations - then the price you mention, as far as I can judge, is really not reasonable,” he continued. But Holger never had the chance to carry out his plan to help the remaining small shareholders."