Tetra Pak's Rousing— Packaging Billionaire—Dies

Gad Rausing, the billionaire Swedish industrialist who inherited his father's worldwide packaging business, died Friday. He was 77.

Rausing died after a brief illness at his home near the western town of Lausanne, Tetra Pak company spokesman Joergen Haglind said. He did not give the cause of death.

The Forbes magazine list of the world's richest people ranked Rausing 31st last year, with a personal fortune of $9 billion.

In 1951, Rausing's father Ruben developed the Tetra Pak system for storing, packaging and distributing liquids such as milk and fruit juice.

The Tetra Pak group continued to develop new packages, including the Tetra Brik in 1969, and the Lausanne-based company still holds a virtual worldwide monopoly on drinks packages. In 1998, some 13 billion gallons of drinks were supplied in Tetra Pak packages.

The company had 1998 sales of $6.5 billion, with operations in about 170 countries.

When their father retired, Gad Rausing and his brother Hans took over the company. Gad Rausing later bought out his brother's share.

Rausing leaves a wife, Birgit, two sons, Finn and Joern, who both help run the Tetra Pak empire, and a daughter, Kirsten, a horse breeder who lives in Britain.