Sign in

Private company

Van Leer Industrial Packaging

Van Leer Packaging is a packaging company which had 17,000 employees and generated more than 2 billion in sales globally. In May 1999, Royal Packaging Industries Van Leer N.V was acquired by rival Huhtamäki.2 It is headquartered in Culemborg.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

  • HeadquartersCulemborg1
  • Legal formcorporation1

See how the biggest companies compare on our leaderboards

Van Leer Packaging is a packaging company which had 17,000 employees and generated more than 2 billion in sales globally. In May 1999, Royal Packaging Industries Van Leer N.V was acquired by rival Huhtamäki.2

The story

History

Van Leer Packaging was founded in 1919 by Bernard van Leer. Working in post World War I, Bernard started a small factory outside of Amsterdam. Van Leer Packaging then expanded into the industrial packaging field and received its first breakthrough in 1925 for a large steel drum order from the Shell Oil Company. By 1997 it is reported to have generated over $4.75 billion and post steady profit growth. In 1999, Huhtamäki acquired Van Leer Packaging for about $1 billion (~$1.77 billion in 2024).

Van Leer Group Foundation

After the acquisition of Royal Packaging Industries Van Leer, The Van Leer Group created the Bernard Van Leer Foundation, which funds the Jerusalem Film Centre and the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.

From Wikipedia’s article on Van Leer Packaging, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Subsidiaries and ownership

Owners

  • Bernard van Leer

From Wikidata.1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3