Budelpack's history
Budelpack is a family firm named after a town in the province of Brabant called Budel which is where the company's history started in 1971. André Nieuwkerk started the Netherlands' first co-packing company at his confectionary factory as a contract packing company for Mars. We have since developed into one of Europe's leading co-packers. This is our history.
1971 - 1981: Secondary packing of pre-packed products
In 1971, Mars asked us to turn pre-packed bars into multipacks giving us our first co-packing project. In 1973, we moved to André's father Evert Nieuwkerk's pastry factory in Poortvliet. For the next 10 years we packaged pre-packed items such as toys, food, personal and home care products.
1981 - 1991: Distinguishing primary packaging
During the 1980s competition on the secondary packaging market increased dramatically. It was time for us to distinguish ourselves using reverse integration. We started with the primary packaging of raw products and gave ourselves a massive head start in the process. Although it was quite a leap to take, we managed to gain companies' trust. Turnover grew 25 - 30% per year.
1991 - 2001: Royal visit, top assignment and many acquisitions
Minister Andriessen opened our new building in 1992. Evert Nieuwkerk retired. In 1996, Queen Beatrix visited Tholen on Queen's Day [national day celebrating the queen mother's birthday]; we wrapped the bridge over the Scheldt-Rhine canal in orange [the royal colour]. P&G's introduction of ultrathin sanitary pads gave us our biggest assignment ever. From 1995 onwards, we took over a large number of factories for home care and personal care products.
2001 - 2010: First On Site assignment; second generation takes over management
In 2002, we packaged the so-called 'Zalm-kits' for the Ministry of Finance. Every Dutch citizen received a set of the new coins when the euro was introduced. The stringent security requirements made us decide to move the packing line to the Nederlandsche Bank (Dutch Central Bank) distribution center in Lelystad. This was the first packing assignment carried out On Site.
In 2010, André Nieuwkerk retired. His son, Peter, who had worked for Budelpack since 2004, took over. In 2012, Peter became the majority shareholder.
2011 - 2017: Expansion into Fresh and multi-site co-packing
In 2015, we expanded our packing operation with a 3rd product group: Fresh. We also developed a unique packing line for the punnetisation of grapes and lodged this activity with Budelpack Fresh B.V.
In 2015, we also started collaborating with a large well-established logistic provider. This increased the number of flexible co-packing locations in Europe to over 50. The founding of Budelpack On Site B.V. made our transformation from a single site to a multi-site co-packer a reality. We also founded Budelpack Europe. This holding manages the corporate quality management system and acts as a central equipment pool. Packing machines and lines are rented to all locations in a flexible manner. This leads to maximum technology availability at minimal cost.
2018: Budelpack acquires co-packer Interpak
The aquisition involves 100% of the shares in Interpak Holding BV and subsidiary Interpak BV. Combining the volumes of Interpak and Budelpack not only ensures the best cost control, but also ensures the availability of packaging capacity for a wide range of packaging techniques; a condition to continue to meet customers' demand.
2020: Integration of the Tholen location in the Poortvliet location and expansion of activities to France
The Poortvliet location expanded its production space by 15%. At the end of June, the activities of Interpak in Tholen were fully integrated in the Poortvliet location.
The unique Modular Production Units (MPUs) developed by Budelpack are installed in Mormant, France. MPUs make it possible to package foodsafe "any place any time". In this case for a new strategic activity: packaging food in 'hoppers' which are then delivered directly to the supermarkets. The consumer fills his / her own packaging from these hoppers and the consumer packaging will be reused.
2021-2022: 50th anniversary and the latest challenge: ‘Budelfood’
2021 is all about Budelpack’s 50th anniversary. Despite Covid-19, it is a festive year. There are various fun activities for the staff throughout the year and one of the highlights is the unveiling of an anniversary painting especially made for Budelpack by artist Wilma Veen.
Budelpack not only reflects back on 50 wonderful years, but is also looking to the future. In 2022 Budelpack will be working hard on a new challenge in the field of 3D food printing: starting mid-2022 Budelfood, the newest division of the Budelpack Group, is going to supply 3D food in printed and unprinted form for people with dysphagia and for children aged 1-10 years.
More information about Budelfood will follow soon on this website.
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