How to make a packet out of a package

Origins of the Tetra Pak billions

The origins of the Tetra Pak billions can be traced back to a Swedish fishing village, where Ruben Rausing was born in 1895.

As he watched his wife stuffing sausage casings and sealing the ends, he realised the principle could be applied to drinks packaging.

The tetrahedron design was patented in 1944 and turned Tetra Pak into one of the world’s most successful companies.

When Ruben Rausing retired, the business passed to sons Hans and Gad. Hans, now 91 and father to Hans Kristian, Sigrid and Lisbet, is famously frugal, and drove a battered Morris Minor and a second-hand Lada.

He moved to Britain in the 1980s and, according to Tatler, asks for the OAP discount at his Sussex barber’s. He sold his business share to Gad for a reported £3.2 billion. After Gad died in 2000, his children, Jörn, Finn and Kirsten, became sole owners of the company.