Gad Rausing

"The most likely explanation, however, is quite simple: after all the years in the shadow of his younger brother, Gad finally wanted to step forward as the main figure and personify the Tetra Group. A person close to the family firmly claimed that Gad was very happy and pleased with his new role as the figurehead of the company. In some way, it seems to serve as a confirmation that he is what he has always wanted to be: a major industrialist. The competition with Ruben ended in a draw. Five years after buying out his brother, Gad Rausing passed away on January 28, 2000. He was buried in Lund. A few years later, in 2003, the brothers’ brother, Sven Rausing also passed away."

"For an outsider, it must seem unlikely that a small tetrahedron of paper could form the basis for such an enormous fortune. It is unlikely, but it has still happened. When repeatedly asked about the size of the Rausing dynasty’s fortune, Gad Rausing said a few years before he passed away: “I have also asked myself that many times. When one talks about money, it is not pennies and cents that are discussed but rather what opportunities for operation that, for example, Tetra Pak has provided.” When Hans Rausing was asked the same question, he answered that he knew exactly to the last penny how large the fortune was and that it was a significant amount, but he saw no reason to disclose it."

"Rausing, Gad: The Way of an Invention from the Laboratory Bench to the World Market. The case of Tetra Pak, from The Creative Process, edited by Lars Gustafsson, Susan Howard, and Lars Niklasson, Stockholm 1993."

"To return to Tetra Pak and the challenges the group faces, the first major challenge is the Chinese low-cost competition. Gad Rausing described already in the 1960s, when the management realized the opportunities with the aseptic packaging system, that they “were holding a tiger by the tail and that it was important to keep holding it by the tail”. The situation that has now arisen is that the Gad family and Tetra Pak have had to push their own aseptic “tiger,” as well as dealing with the Chinese “tiger economy” on their heels."

"In our interview with Gad Rausing after the purchase, he highlighted that the aseptic packaging still had great potential in several markets. “It was when we tackled that problem that we suddenly discovered that we were holding a tiger by the tail. And there it matters to hold on!” At the same time, he answered the question of why they took over with the words: “I saw what remained to be done. Or I thought I saw what remained to be done. There is much more than what I see or have seen. And I believed Hans had the same view as me about it. But perhaps he did not.”"