- connecting our global business network
31 March 2021
SA Sisters’ Success Story and Commitment to Innovation and Sustainability
Zoe Detmold
General Manager at Detmold Ventures
Bachelor of Management (Marketing)
Sascha Detmold Cox
Group Executive General Manager – Business Enablement at the Detmold Group
Bachelor of Management
If you’ve lived, worked or studied in Australia for any period of time, chances are the Detmold Group’s innovative packaging has kept your hands cool from a piping hot coffee, delivered food to your home, or enclosed a significant gift for a loved one.
Since its establishment in 1948, the Detmold Group – which includes brands Detpak, PaperPak and Detmold Medical – has become a global innovator in sustainable paper and board packaging, all while staying uniquely South Australian and family owned.
Today, a third generation of UniSA-educated Detmolds are continuing on this strong tradition of innovation, family business values and success, in management graduates, Zoe Detmold and Sascha Detmold-Cox.
In fact, their education and the University remains a significant relationship that has continued to be important in their professional lives and drive to remain at the forefront of technological developments.
Most recently, the Detmold Group has partnered with UniSA in the form of projects like testing of millions of respirator and surgical masks they manufactured to stop the spread of COVID-19 and the production of coating for their resilient RecycleMe™ takeaway coffee cups.
With their expertise in nurturing great opportunities for growth and development in a constantly evolving market, the Detmold Group now employs more than 3,000 people, with representatives in 17 countries. They also have manufacturing facilities across seven countries, producing over 22,000 different food and retail packaging products, supplying some of the world’s largest and most iconic brands, including Starbucks, KFC, Kathmandu, Country Road, Krispy Crème.
General Manager of Detmold Ventures, Zoe Detmold was always drawn to the fast-paced business industry and entrepreneurial spirit of the company. Inspired by her father and grandfather’s work before her – and their commitment to growth and the diversity of a global business – holding a role within the Detmold Group was always her goal.
Now as Detmold Ventures General Manager, Zoe manages specialised packaging companies that sit alongside the Detmold Group, ensuring these businesses have a clear strategic growth plan and operate to their high standards of quality, service and efficiency. Part of this is to also look for new opportunities for growth, including products and customer behaviour trends or other businesses.
“I love and appreciate having the opportunity to work with my father and two sisters. I think it is incredibly rewarding and adds a deeper level of meaning and connection to what we do. It can also add an element of fun,” says Zoe. “It helps that we are all committed to a shared vision for the future."
“I think we all have great respect and admiration for our grandfather, Colin Detmold, for starting the business, growing it in those early days with great tenacity and instilling the values that still underpin the Detmold Group today.”
“Our father, Rodney Detmold, has then grown it into a global and diversified business. We feel a great sense of responsibility to ensure the future success of the business.”
Zoe’s sister, Group Executive General Manager – Business Enablement, Sascha Detmold Cox, however, was not initially as intent on following in the same footsteps. But, after finding her feet in a marketing role – the very first of its kind at the company – she found a passion for trailblazing in the industry as well.
In her role as Group Executive General Manager – Business Enablement, Sascha considers functions of the business such as procurement, quality, and warehouse logistics, ensuring efficiency in order to ensure their teams operate at optimum capability. She is also currently looking after emerging markets such as Chile and India.
While Zoe and Sascha are always learning and adjusting to their fast-paced industry, both sisters studied Management at UniSA which taught them fundamentals they still refer to today when assessing new markets or launching new products.
Detpak in particular has long been an innovator in sustainable packaging solutions from programs such as RecycleMe™ with UniSA, and education campaigns such as Cut the Rubbish, which are important in encouraging and enabling recycling and promoting a more circular economy.
Sustainability has become increasingly core to their product offering, manufacturing capabilities and day to day operations.
“Assisting the industries in which we operate to move away from problematic single-use plastic items and find sustainable alternatives is something that we are excited about and proactively looking to support,” says Zoe.
“We are prepared to do this across a range of product innovations, including recently introducing a range of Market Trays as a sustainable board-based alternative to plastic produce trays. With innovation so core to what we do, we are continuing to look at how we promote sustainable packaging solutions for our customers.”
“It was great to been involved with the Group at a time when we launched the innovative Ripple-Wrap™ and RecycleMe™ cups featuring a next generation lining with UniSA which allows our cups to be recycled in existing infrastructure in Australia,” adds Sascha.
“We were the first to bring waxed wraps to the Australasian market. And today we continue to support our customers in innovations, with rapid prototyping of new products, and a team of experts ensuring a new product will balance in both functionality and sustainability requirements.”
Not even a pandemic has stopped Zoe and Sascha and their Detmold teams developing ground-breaking, innovative products and ways of business, launching a new venture last year in Cup & Carry, an online business offering short run, custom printed, sustainable packaging.
They also inspiringly responded to a need for surgical face masks to protect our frontline healthcare workers – which were also tested at the University – answering the South Australian Government’s call for businesses to assist, to help combat the spread of COVID-19 across the country last year.
“After embarking on this project and rapidly establishing our mask manufacturing facility in Brompton, we are now the largest manufacturer of surgical grade face masks in Australia,” says Sascha.
“It is the agility of our people, and our local knowledge backed by our global networks, which allowed us to pivot and respond to this need.”
“We feel a great sense of pride in both looking to localise the manufacture of critical personal protective equipment and that we have been able to mobilise our resources and come to provide this level of support at such a time of need.”
