Rausing family

"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."

"Lisbet has also been active in the Rausing-owned company Ingleby Farms and Forests. Hans Rausing and his family have largely placed their fortune in various foundations. These foundations have assets in securities, real estate, and land areas worldwide. The company Ingleby was started in 1998 with the vision of being the leading agricultural company based on ecologically sustainable agriculture. The company owns large land areas in nine countries across four continents. Moreover, through Ingleby, Lisbet has invested more than 260 million kronor to build the tetrahedron-influenced castle Corrour Lodge in Scotland. The lands around the castle amount to 194 million square meters, making Ingleby one of the largest landowners in Scotland. However, the castle is available for rent to private individuals, which partially reflects the Rausing family’s view on their ownership and the investments they make."

"After IndustriKapital listed Alfa Laval on the stock market in 2002, the Rausing family became the largest shareholders and their share has gradually increased from about 18 percent to 29.1 percent in 2020. The family owns their share through the company Tetra Laval B.V. in the Netherlands. “We will continue to be committed owners as long as we own a significant part of the company,” Jörn Rausing stated in Affärsvärlden in 2012, while emphasizing that the ownership was not a strategic holding for the Tetra Laval group. Both Jörn and Finn Rausing sit on the board of Alfa Laval."

"The setup allowed for the financing of further development and expansion of the companies, while at the same time, the Rausing family could start building their private fortune. Once the money had entered the foundations, they could not, on Ruben’s explicit orders, be used for investments in Tetra Pak. Ruben’s plan from the fifties was beginning to be realized."

"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."

"For the company’s part, Hans Rausing’s sale was a dangerous step. When the figurehead, who had been there for more than 40 years, completely disappeared from the business, it sent a signal that could be interpreted as him no longer believing in the company. Internally, such an action could have created confusion and uncertainty. Externally, it may have contributed to casting doubt about the company’s future and spreading uncertainty among customers. And it all depends on the company always being family-owned. In a typical publicly traded company, it is not nearly as dangerous when, for example, the CEO or chairman of the board resigns, since the focus there has not been concentrated to the same extent on one or a few individuals. At the same time, an external sale of Tetra Laval would most likely have meant that it would have been difficult to keep the group together and continue with the very long-term strategy that the Rausing family had driven. In the case of Tetra Laval, it has become such that it is almost impossible to tell where the boundary between the Rausing family and the company lies. Though it is not the whole truth, the two appear almost synonymous to employees and the public."

"But a very important person had not been present at the meeting: Ruben. The recent developments, with both sons away from the real power, had taken too much of a toll on him. He couldn’t bear to also hear Holger identify the Rausing family as one of the scapegoats, but he understood that he had no choice in the current situation. He had to let Holger continue, at least for now. It required someone with more experience and significantly firmer grip than Hans to straighten out the company. But this did not mean that he had to witness the family being publicly disavowed."

"This is the story of a remarkable man, a family dynasty, and a company. Ruben Rausing did something that should have been impossible: starting and maintaining control over a company that became a world leader in its industry without any initial capital. And not only that: in the end, the Rausing family held one of the world’s largest private fortunes. Thus, this book is also about money, power, and influence. It can also be seen as an almost 90-year-long innovation process that continues today."

"Holger explained to Ruben that he would gladly keep his shares in Tetra Pak if he gained control over the company’s cost development, was freed from his guarantor liability, and was not forced to invest more money. This would be written down in a new agreement between the families. In a letter, he also suggested that the period for redeeming the shares should be temporarily extended to December 16 that same year unless a new collaboration agreement was reached beforehand. However, Ruben preferred not to see a new agreement and therefore ignored the letter. He had made up his mind: there would not be a new agreement that limited his freedom of action. The only thing he was interested in was delaying the development until the Rausing family had received the money from the sale. Then Holger would be thrown out of Tetra Pak."

"To maintain real control over a company, simply owning it is not enough. One must also have executive power in their hands – without it, the influence is limited to what is decided in the boardroom and at shareholders’ meetings. If the Rausing family did not have someone in the CEO position, they would no longer have total control over the operations. Especially since Holger had a controlling stake in the company and could thus block decision-making. But Ruben had no choice: if Holger did not take over the actual management of Tetra Pak, it was not only the dynasty building that would crumble, but the entire life’s work: Åkerlund & Rausing, Östanå, and Tetra Pak."

"Holger realized that he had the necessary support from the board members who were not part of the Rausing family to demand what he needed to save the company. Therefore, he requested that the executive committee should be superior to the CEO and not be on equal terms with him. “Otherwise, we will never get any order and clarity in the business of this company,” he clarified firmly."

"The moral dissipation had actually begun at the top, when the conflicts between the Rausing family and Holger were ongoing, and then spread down to the employees on the floor. The staff’s uncertainty about the company’s policy was largely due to all the investments made in projects that were depicted as the company’s future at a very early stage. After a while, these projects were discontinued, which created a very poor atmosphere among those involved."

"The creator, LO economist Rudolf Meidner, wanted to exclude smaller companies with fewer than one hundred employees, but the LO congress said no to this in 1976. It wasn't just Ingvar Kamprad and Ikea and the Rausing family with Tetra Pak who fled the country. Thousands of family-owned small and medium-sized businesses ended up on the sales list."