Gebruiker:VPK Group/Kladblok

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[[VPK Group produces recycled based paper and board, corrugated board, solid board and cores in 70 plants with 7000 employees spread over Europe.

The group delivers sustainable protective cardboard packaging solutions which are recycled-based, fully recyclable and bio-degradable.

VPK Group is a market reference within its 3 market segments, each operating under its specific brand: VPK Packaging for the corrugated board division, Smart Packaging Solutions for the solid board division and Corex for the cores division.

Customers for corrugated packaging are typically companies active in food processing, FMCG manufacturing and e-commerce.

Smart Packaging Solutions will protect fresh vegetables, flowers, meat, poultry and fish during the logistic handling from harvest to retail shops.

Corex supplies cores for the manufacturing process of textile, yarn, paper, foils and film.

VPK Group recycles 1.6 million tons of paper and board on yearly basis, as raw material to manufacture new packaging products.

History

VPK was founded in Oudegem (Belgium) in 1936 by Omer Macharis. His son, Fernand Macharis, joined him in 1947. Together they built an innovative and successful paper mill with annex corrugated board conversion plant.

The international expansion of the group started in 1990 with the construction of a plant in the Netherlands by Jean-Paul Macharis, a grandson of the founder of VPK Group.

In the next decade, the acquisitions of Ondulys in France and Rigid in the UK took place.

From 1999 until 2013, the group was listed on Euronext, which enabled the financing of further growth through green field projects, acquisitions and joint ventures.

New corrugated packaging plants were built in Poland and Romania, several core winding plants were bought.

VPK took a bold step in 2013 by acquiring Stracel in Strasbourg and subsequently converting its virgin pulp magazine paper mill into a recycled containerboard mill, now known as Blue Paper.

In 2016 five corrugated board plants, formerly known as Peterson, were acquired in Scandinavia.

Corex became market leader in the core manufacturing business in Europe, with an extension into China, through the acquisition of Corenso Ltd from Madison Dearborn in 2019.

Today, VPK Group is still in hands of a limited number of shareholders within the family, which reflects in VPK’s responsible ownership, strong entrepreneurial spirit and long-term approach.

Pierre Macharis, a grandson of the founder Omer Macharis, is the CEO.

References

• VPK Group website: www.vpkgroup.com

• Sustainability Report VPK Group 2020: https://www.vpkgroup.com/-/media/Files/reports/Sustainability-Report-2020.pdf?la=en&hash=91058A627D75B0C4DC3E03DEAD72B829869179DC]]