ICI

"Although Harry Järund’s machine was not perfect, it was still a prototype. Ruben seemed relieved. But still, enormous problems remained. There was no material available to coat the paper to make it leak-proof. Wax, which was the usual sealing agent, could not be used as it would break in the folds. It also could not withstand heat sealing; it would melt. Overall, there was no known coating material that would withstand heat sealing without altering the taste of the milk. And if they did succeed in finding an alternative that could be used, how would it be applied to the paper and were there coating machines available? Before the war, Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) in the UK had developed a low molecular weight polyethylene plastic. It was not suitable for coating a tetrahedron, but Stig Sunner believed that a high molecular weight polyethylene would work well for tetra packaging. Erik Torudd, who was in charge of the commercial part of the material issue, contacted ICI to inquire if they could possibly develop such a plastic. If the trials were successful, ICI would become the sole supplier of polyethylene for milk packaging. This was a very tempting bait. Torudd received an affirmative answer, but with the reservation that it would take time."

"They found the solution in 1962 in the United Kingdom. Through their contacts, Ruben and Holger managed to get the British insurance company Royal Insurance to lend 15 million kronor for twenty years. But to secure the loan, they were forced to ask their plastic supplier ICI to provide a guarantee. Against the guarantee, ICI received exclusive rights to polyethylene deliveries to Tetra Pak. Of the 15 million, formally, eleven went to Åkerlund & Rausing and four to Tetra Pak. In reality, most of the money went directly or indirectly to Tetra Pak."

"They found the solution in 1962 in the United Kingdom. Through their contacts, Ruben and Holger managed to get the British insurance company Royal Insurance to lend 15 million kronor for twenty years. But to secure the loan, they were forced to ask their plastic supplier ICI to provide a guarantee. Against the guarantee, ICI received exclusive rights to polyethylene deliveries to Tetra Pak. Of the 15 million, formally, eleven went to Åkerlund & Rausing and four to Tetra Pak. In reality, most of the money went directly or indirectly to Tetra Pak."

"A little unsettled, Gibbs spent some of the following summer in Adelaide on an internship at the ICI plant converting salt into soda ash. He was assigned to work on a methods study, which considered the operation’s industrial processes to see how they might be improved. Working alongside a very bright arts graduate, he was surprised and interested to discover that although he wasn’t an engineer, this man was very good at assessing industrial processes. He learnt that ICI consciously employed non-engineers for this work, the rationale being that because they didn’t know anything about the processes, they asked the most basic, and often the most productive, questions. Engineers, by contrast, frequently took some aspects for granted and missed opportunities to do things differently."