Facing the future as one

Following the death of Jacques Wauters, customers, suppliers and employees are wondering what the future will bring. There have been several rumours, but now is the time for clarity.
The “new” directors have made a clear statement: “The company is not for sale”.
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Since 2014, the two sons of Jacques Wauters have been running the companies in an official capacity and continuing the family legacy. Thierry was appointed Industrial Director of the Wauters group and General Manager of B.Pack, while Eric was named President of the Wauters group.

Clear governance

“Our first official move was to clarify our operations and financial solidity by creating the Wauters group in 2014”, recalls Eric Wauters.
Up to that point, the original Wauters site in Villebon-sur-Yvette and the B.Pack site in Burgundy were separate legal entities, and customers would struggle to understand how the two worked together industrially, both in terms of strategy and operations. “When we created the group, its business reviews as well as its investment and development policy became clearer”, explains Thierry Wauters.

Wauters is, and will remain, a family business.

“The business is family owned. Our father had to work closely with his mother when they found themselves suddenly responsible for the business on the death of our grandfather. But we’re fortunate in that we’ve been working together, and with our father, for several decades. Our children are also part owners. We don’t want there to be any speculation. We’re dynamic and focused on continuity, just like always”, adds Eric.

Clear strategic goals

The Wauters group is indeed one of the few family businesses on the French industrial packaging landscape. Attributed Living Heritage Company (Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant) status in June, the Wauters group is committed to preserving its know-how and developing high-tech solutions for a tailor-made industrial approach to packaging projects.

An ongoing investment policy.

Offering automated edge painting and hot marking cylinder applications, the company constantly invests in niche know-how to offer matchless added value to all its customers.
In 2020, B.Pack invested in a new offset for its half-format equipment, followed in 2021 by a new large-format offset in Villebon-sur-Yvette and its specific cold stamping machine. In 2022, B.Pack brought in a new cutting and gluing machine, and a new ERP tool for Villebon-sur-Yvette: the latest investments are aimed at long-standing performance, sustainability, and new possibilities for perceived value on boxes.

A proactive environmental policy.

Wauters has always been a pioneer.
With a Platinum EcoVadis rating for the Villebon-sur-Yvette site and a Gold rating for B.Pack, the financial solidity of the Wauters group has always enabled it to anticipate customer requests and continually offer more eco-conscious solutions, through its investigations, tests and applications: ClimateCalc (calculation of carbon footprint for each box), use of biosourced inks, cold stamping for example, and most recently waterless CTP (which we will cover in more detail shortly).

Clear futur 

“Our aim is to develop the strategic continuity of the Wauters group. Our expertise lies in supporting our customers by manufacturing extraordinary products using precise and reliable industrial solutions. From a contextual point of view, we have challenges to overcome and we are going about that just as we have in the past. Yesterday our challenges were Covid, a huge dip in demand, and then supply-chain shortages. In the future it will be the skyrocketing cost of energy”, explains Thierry Wauters.

“Our strength – what makes us different – is that we are a family. We are close to our customers. And we’d like to stay that way, so we keep our relationship with them open and direct. We represent our company every single day. Working closely with our customers, our teams, and on the machines: that is how Wauters operates and will continue to operate”, underlines Eric Wauters. “Working together, sharing ideas and getting involved: those are the elements we strive to develop”.

The Wauters team

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