When a headhunter asked Jeff Bi Hua whether he was interested in joining a packaging company called Tetra Pak, he took a visit to the local supermarket to see their products. What he saw convinced him that the company was probably a safe bet to join - row upon row of Tetra Pak packages of milk, juice and tea on the supermarket shelves.
The dominant Swedish conglomerate commanded some 80 per cent of the world's aseptic packaging market and 70.2 per cent of the mainland market in 2009. Aseptic packages are sterilised to ensure the safety of the drinks they contain.
Now Bi is engaged in a David and Goliath battle with his former employer. After serving for six years with Tetra Pak, Bi left the company and is now chief executive of a small rival company called Greatview Aseptic Packaging, which is being sued by Tetra Pak for patent infringement.
'Tetra Pak was dominating the market, and it's still dominating the market. Our value is to provide an alternative to the customers,' said Bi. 'The law of gravity is there. The customers want to switch to us as long as we can give them good quality and a good price. We have grown to a market share of 9 per cent from zero eight years ago. We took away Tetra Pak's share.'
Greatview began operating in 2001 under the name of Shandong Tralin Packaging. Its first factory in Shandong province produced packaging materials for beverage companies and in its initial public offering prospectus to a Hong Kong listing completed in December, the company admitted to having had 'limited success' due to low barriers of entry and intense competition.
In 2003, Bi and Hong Gang, the current Greatview chairman, joined the company and, drawing on their long years of experience in the industry, they started an aseptic packaging business. Between 2005 and 2006, Bain Capital invested in the firm.