October 3, 2025
Source: VerpakkingsManagement
Volkers celebrated its 100th anniversary at Beeld en Geluid in Hilversum. It was an afternoon dedicated not only to looking back, but also to looking ahead, including at the impact of generative AI.
The history of Volkers dates back to 1925. The (great-)grandfather of Rick and Paul Volkers started his own business after working as a lithographer in Lyon and Paris. With 6,000 guilders – partly borrowed from his father and brothers – he took his first steps. The company grew, survived the war years, and developed rapidly after 1945. In the 1960s, it merged to become Neroc, which employed hundreds of people.
'My father was ultimately responsible for that entire company. For him, everything revolved around craftsmanship and the courage to invest in new developments,' said Rick Volkers.
From left to right: Tom van 't Hek, Paul and Rick Volkers
Rick joined the company in the 1990s and took charge of the Nijkerk branch, which he managed to turn profitable again. When Neroc was sold, he was able to buy out that branch and continue it as an independent company under the name Neroc Packaging. In 2004, the family decided to attach their own name to the business. Rick: 'I wanted to give it its own identity. The name Volkers was stronger and more recognizable.'
Rick would call his father, who lived to a ripe old age, every day. He would always ask three standard questions: 'How are your clients doing? If there is a problem, solve it immediately! Are your clients paying on time? Are you taking good care of your staff and their pensions?'
These three questions reveal the DNA of Volkers: a focus on long-term relationships with both clients and employees.
With Paul Volkers , the fourth generation is now ready to take the lead. He has been active in the company for three years. 'I have only been part of this hundred-year history for a small fraction of time, but I feel the responsibility to take the family business further,' he told Tom van ’t Hek, who hosted the anniversary program.
His focus is primarily on the future: 'We are increasingly broadening our services and aligning them with customer needs. You have to listen to what the client wants while continuing to invest in technology.'
According to Paul, the family business remains recognizable through values that never change. "Reliability and loyalty—those are the words that truly define us. Clients have often been with us for years. We want to live up to that trust time and time again."
The program offered more than just family history. Jeroen Delmée, head coach of the Dutch national hockey team, showed how to turn a group of individuals into a winning collective. His three pillars—culture, trust, and clarity—proved relevant not only in sports but just as much in a family business or a corporate environment.
Next, Deborah Nas, a professor at TU Delft, took the 160 attendees into the world of generative AI. She placed the technology in a historical perspective: from the printing press to the internet, every breakthrough initially met with resistance. People overvalue what they know and underestimate what is new. "We focus on what we are losing, rather than what we can gain."
At the same time, she showed that companies are already taking major steps. Enterprises worldwide are training their own models, fueled by internal data. Nestlé and Procter & Gamble have since developed their own variants. This makes employees more productive and drastically shortens innovation cycles. Yet, for many corporations, progress is slow: outdated IT systems, conflicting KPIs, and caution often keep the technology at bay. Nas’s message: "Start small, experiment, and learn. That is the only way an organization can get used to what AI can deliver."
Comedian and poet David van Rosmalen summarized the discussions throughout the day with long, ingenious, and hilarious poems.
100 years of Volkers was celebrated by looking back and looking ahead. Or, as Rick Volkers summarized the theme: "looking back toward the future." With a new generation taking the baton, the question after 100 years remains the same: how do you stay relevant to clients, employees, and partners?
During the anniversary, Gijs Schuringa of Sumthing, a friend of Paul and a supplier to Volkers, spoke about his organization's mission: to accelerate nature restoration by joining forces, both large and small. Sumthing brings together projects worldwide—from coral restoration to reforestation—and connects them with companies and individuals.
For Volkers, this means that every order directly contributes to the restoration of nature. Especially for the anniversary guests, Volkers had a tree planted in the Netherlands through Sumthing. With a QR code in their goodie bag, visitors can track how those trees grow into a forest.