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Packaging company Elopak has recently celebrated its 50th birthday. The story began when a Norwegian cellulose engineer, Christian August Johansen, had been in the US and had learnt about the American Pure-Pak carton.

He had a vision and applied for a European licence. He was turned down – but, not to be denied, he sat on the steps of the Pure-Pak offices until the people inside would see him. His persistence paid off and he obtained his European licence agreement for the American Pure-Pak carton, as well as an agency for Pure-Pak filling machines.

But Johansen needed an investor and had already been in contact with several when, in the spring of 1956, he found an interested listener in Johan H Andresen Sr at Tiedemann’s Tobaksfabrik in Oslo.

Norwegian dairy companies had tried single-use packaging, but there was great scepticism: “It's clear that the packing will make the milk so expensive that it cannot be considered for normal sales,” was the common reaction from the country’s dairy company managers.

But Andresen wasn't easily frightened off. In February 1957, Elopak (European licensee of Pure-Pak) was founded and a production plant was built in record time. All this was before they had a single customer.

But they had a vision and a belief in what they were doing.

I wonder: who are the dairy visionaries of today? Any ideas?