How Kirsten built the fortune
Kirsten Rausing is the eldest grandchild in her branch of the family that created Tetra Pak. Her grandfather Ruben Rausing set up the company in Lund, in southern Sweden, in 1951, after years of work on a carton that could replace glass milk bottles. The tetrahedron package launched in 1952, and later designs such as the rectangular brick and aseptic cartons made the company a dominant global supplier of drinks packaging.
Ownership moved to Ruben's sons, Gad and Hans, who ran the business together for decades. Under their leadership Tetra Pak purchased Alfa Laval in 1991 and became Tetra Laval in 1993. Two years later Gad bought Hans's stake, so Gad's family became the group's only owners. After Gad died in 2000, Kirsten and her brothers Finn and Jörn each inherited roughly a third of the group.
Her wealth is therefore tied to the long term performance of a private industrial company rather than to businesses she founded herself. Tetra Laval's earnings come from selling packaging material, filling machines and services to food and beverage producers, from dairy farm technology and from bottling equipment, a mix that has proved resilient through economic downturns because people keep buying milk and juice.
Companies and holdings
Kirsten's main financial interest is her share in Tetra Laval, the Swiss based holding company whose subsidiaries are:
- Tetra Pak, the carton packaging and food processing business
- Sidel, a supplier of bottling and packaging lines for liquids
- DeLaval, a manufacturer of milking equipment and dairy farm systems
Tetra Laval also holds a substantial stake in the listed engineering company Alfa Laval. Kirsten has been a member of the Tetra Laval board alongside her brothers. Her other major interest is her horse breeding operation. She owns Lanwades Stud near Newmarket in Suffolk, the centre of British flat racing, where she breeds and stands stallions, and she has also owned breeding land in Ireland.
Although her racing activities are visible, they are small compared with her share of the packaging group, which accounts for nearly all of her wealth.
Early life and career
Kirsten Rausing was born in June 1952, the daughter of Gad Rausing and his wife Birgit. She grew up in Sweden and developed an interest in horses at an early age. Rather than taking an executive role in the family's packaging business, she built a career in thoroughbred breeding and moved to England, where she has lived for decades.
At Lanwades she developed a reputation as a careful, long term breeder who keeps mares over several generations and sells or races their offspring. Her most celebrated homebred horse was the filly Alborada, who won the Champion Stakes at Newmarket in both 1998 and 1999. Alborada's relatives, including Albanova, a Group 1 winner in Germany, extended the success of the family of mares Kirsten had developed. Her breeding work has also produced stallions that stand at Lanwades for other breeders to use, and she has served on industry bodies representing British breeders and the bloodstock trade.
Breeding on this scale is a long game. A mare's value depends on the racing record of her offspring over many years, and a successful stallion can earn fees from dozens of matings each season. Kirsten's approach of building a few strong families of mares, rather than buying proven horses at high prices, is one reason her stud is respected in the industry.
Philanthropy and public life
Kirsten Rausing is better known in racing circles than in business ones. She has been an active participant in the governance of the British bloodstock industry, and she is a familiar figure at the major bloodstock auctions held in Newmarket. Much of her public profile comes from sales rings and racecourses rather than from boardrooms.
Her personal charitable giving is not widely documented. The foundation set up by her parents supports humanities research in Sweden, and the wider Rausing family is known for philanthropy, though the most visible foundations belong to her cousins' branch. She generally avoids interviews about her wealth and keeps her private life out of the press.