From a small company with 20 employees in the south of the Netherlands Budelpack developed to a leading pan-European co-packer and co-maker in Food, Pharma and Personal & Home care with over 1700 employees and 210 million euro turnover in 35 years. Each plant developed into specialised centers of excellence, focussing on either Food, Pharma or Personal Care & Home Care. Since 2004, Food became an independant and autonomous profit center, but non-core due to the targeted growth in Personal Care & Home Care. It was because of this that the management of the specialised Food plant in Poortvliet asked Mr. André Nieuwkerk to leave this plant out of the Group MBO deal, beginning of 2007. This has been effected by January 1st, 2007.

Budelpack is founded in 1971 by André Nieuwkerk. As one of the first ‘jobbing packers’, the company began its commercial life undertaking complex packing projects for Mars. Following a period of rapid growth, Budelpack relocated from Budel to Poortvliet in 1973, enabling the company to begin offering more specialized packing services to supports its customers’ sales promotion activities.

Five years later, Budelpack opened a new Poortvliet plant, which allowed it to separate its customers’ increasingly diverse, often incompatible products, so eliminating contamination risk. Budelpack’s transition from jobber to primary packer had begun. The company soon came to be recognized as a specialist in both sampling and new product and market introductions. Budelpack pushed back the boundaries once again, extending its facilities leading the company in an all-new expansion phase – as a co-maker.

Budelpack’s entry into contract manufacturing began in the early 1980s. Around that time, the company was split into two discrete units: food and non-food. International expansion following, beginning with the acquisition of plants in Spain (in 1994) and the UK (in 1998). In 2000, Budelpack entered into a partnership with Sara Lee. This marks the beginning in a string of major long-term manufacturing contracts with leading brand owners, including Unilever, Henkel, Colgate and Beiersdorf.

In 2004, it was decided to focus fully on the Home & Personal Care market. Food and Pharma became independently operated sites, acting as profit centers, steered by their own strategy.


Per January 1st, 2007, the Budelpack Group, except Budelpack in Poortvliet, completed a management buy out: André Nieuwkerk sold his shares to the other three board members Chris Moerkerken, Jan Bakker and Peter Ingelse and the private equity firms Greenfield Capital Partners and Dinvest. Chris Moerkerken succeeded André Nieuwkerk in the position of CEO. The Budelpack Group further emphasized its focus on the Personal & Home care market as the core business of the Group.


Per the same date of January 1st, 2007, the Management Team of Budelpack Poortvliet BV (NL), which was left out of the MBO, acquired a minority share in order to establish a more solid structure for a sustainable future for the Food business.

Today, Budelpack Poortvliet BV is characterized by a strong entrepreneurial spirit, passionate and with a very clear goal: to strenghten the position of Food brand owners by delivering innovative packing concepts and the applicable packing capacity.