Disruption starts with a different way of thinking

Disruption is often associated with breaking rules. At Van Genechten Packaging, it starts with asking better questions.

Why accept the familiar? Why add complexity when ingenuity can remove it? Why should packaging simply contain a product when it can strengthen a brand, improve efficiency, support sustainability ambitions and transform the consumer experience?

This is creative excellence at VGP: disciplined enough to work at scale and ambitious enough to create what did not exist before.

In December 2025, Van Genechten Packaging was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year. In our previous chapter, we described how a challenger mindset got us there. Its results reached beyond performance, into culture, speed and creative output. 

That creative force deserves a chapter of its own.
 

Creativity as a competitive advantage

Creativity is one of VGP's four strategic growth enablers, and the logic is straightforward. Companies can invest in the same machines, work with the same materials and master the same production techniques. The strongest competitive advantage? The ability to see things differently. So VGP trains its people, and their mindset, to question the status quo: a disruptive way of thinking that pursues creative excellence.

In practice, that means turning conventional packaging into a brand-defining experience: the level of wow that stops a shopper at the shelf. It pairs structural engineering and volumetric design with advanced production techniques, and it brings the same thinking to sustainability, replacing plastic with recyclable paper and mono-material designs without losing performance or premium appeal.

Our origami eagle embodies that philosophy: an idea taking shape, fold by fold, until it is ready to lift off.
 

One VGP mindset

As a privately owned company, VGP combines a long-term perspective with the speed and ambition of a challenger. Creative, technical, commercial and production teams bring different perspectives to the same challenge. They question one another, test what is possible and keep improving the answer.

When our CEO Frank Ohle thanked the teams behind this year’s awards, he thanked everyone involved. Because powerful packaging is never the achievement of one person or one discipline. It emerges when people with different expertise work towards the same ambition.

That culture matters. It allows an idea to survive the entire journey — from the first sketch to industrial production — without losing what made it exceptional.

That is where the magic starts.
 

Different thinking, at every step

On 17 September in Rome, at the 30th European Carton Excellence Awards, VGP won five awards, one year after our record-breaking night in Istanbul. Earlier in 2026, the PAC Global Awards in Toronto added two more. Behind every trophy sits a way of thinking, and it looks different at each step.

The brief: challenge the obvious. Creativity begins around the table, before a single line is drawn. Bringing creative, technical and commercial expertise together from the start helps uncover the real opportunity behind a brief. What should the packaging achieve for the brand, the product, the supply chain and the consumer?

Concept: find the unexpected. This is where VGP looks for the angle nobody sees coming. The Rituals Deluxe Advent Calendar starts as a compact box and unfolds into an illuminated 360° winter scene that reveals new details every day. It won Gold in Beauty & Cosmetics and the Public Award.

Engineering: make the idea work. A bold concept only works when the structure delivers, so VGP's engineers look for the cleverest way to build it. For Lindt & Sprüngli, they replaced a plastic tray with a folding carton inlay that holds 24 wrapped chocolates and arrives flat and pre-glued. The jury praised the decision to solve it entirely in cartonboard, and the calendar won the Confectionery award.

Production: prove it at scale. Creativity does not stop when a design is approved. The packaging must run efficiently, fill smoothly and maintain its quality at volume. Producing an ambitious idea reliably and consistently can require as much ingenuity as imagining it.

Finishing: create the desire to touch. The final details shape how packaging is experienced. Hot foil, embossing and carefully selected varnishes add contrast, texture and tactility — turning visual attention into physical interaction.

The shelf and beyond: make the difference visible. The final test is the shelf, where a pack has to outperform. VGP works across ten markets, from frozen food and pet care to premium spirits and beauty, in nine European countries, and brings a fresh angle to each. Co-packing and fulfilment get every idea retail-ready. The aim stays the same: making customers win.
 

Always raising the bar

VGP does not wait for the market to raise the bar. It raises it itself. With VG Schoepe Display on board and VG ProPac as our latest Innovation Hub in Hamburg, VGP's folding carton expertise is joining forces with additional capabilities in displays, promotions, gifting and packaging engineering. 

This is not growth for the sake of scale. It is about connecting complementary expertise and creating more possibilities for customers, from the primary pack to the point of sale. Each new discipline brings another perspective, another question and another opportunity to challenge the expected. Discover more about our capabilities in Promos & Gifts.
 

Tomorrow’s talent

Creativity also looks ahead. VGP invests in young creative talent in many ways. At the Pro Carton Young Designers Awards, VGP was Training Days Sponsor in 2024 and 2025, and this year Main Award Sponsor - helping winning students connect their ideas with materials and production reality. Nurturing young creative talent remains part of how VGP keeps its own thinking fresh. Because new designers bring new questions, and new questions keep a creative company sharp. 

That is the magic in the making: people who raise the bar, and keep defining what comes next.

Challenge the familiar. Shape what’s next.