“It is a very healthy beverage—free of lactose, gluten and cholesterol—that is also a good natural source of Omega 3 and folic acid,” says Daher, explaining the company’s rise through industry ranks to become the Number One supplier of organic soy beverages in Canada.
For all that, Daher readily acknowledges the important role that packaging has played in the company’s success—giving full credit to Nutrisoya’s exclusive co-packing partner Kerry Inc.
Co-packing Nutrisoya’s products since 1996, Kerry specializes in the aseptic filling and packaging process, machinery and materials developed by the leading globally-operating aseptic technologies group Tetra Pak, which serves the Canadian market out of its Tetra Pak Canada Inc. national headquarters in Richmond Hill, Ont.
Photo by Tetra Pak Canada
According to Tetra Pak Canada key accounts director Scott Thornton, Kerry has been Nutrasoya’s co-packer since Day One—utilizing its Tetra Pak TBA/21 filling machine to package the early versions of the natur-a brand beverages into one-liter Tetra Brik Aseptic Square paperboard cartons.
While the model TBA/21 filler is these days still dedicated to packaging all seven of the natur-a stock-keeping units (SKUs) in the updated, 946-ml Tetra Brik Aseptic Square cartons, the recent arrival of a new Tetra Pak A-3/Flex filler at the Kerry plant has enabled Nutrisoya to turn its focus on the promising single-serving segment of the beverage marketplace.
“It was a timely opportunity for Nutrisoya to innovate,” Thornton remarks, saying the new filler, dubbed the Tetra Pak A-3/Flex iLine, was quickly put to work at the Kerry plant to package soy drinks into the smaller Tetra Prisma Aseptic 200-ml cartons.
“The new Tetra Pak A-3/Flex purchased by Kerry came at the time—just when we were looking at ways to increase market share by creating a more convenient, on-the-go, take-along package size for the consumers,” says Daher, adding that recruiting speedskating and cycling star Clara Hughes, Canada’s most decorated Olympic medalist, as the company’s celebrity spokesperson turned out to be a stroke of marketing genius that fueled rapid sales of the 200-ml cartons.
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