Vosgebois Emballages is a subsidiary of the company Vosgebois, founded in 1958 by Jean-Paul Unbekandt (date of birth: February 10, 1929).

On March 17, 1958, drawing upon his experience at the sawmill (at the Kling sawmill in Romanswiller) and paper mill (at La Cellulose de Strasbourg), Jean-Paul Unbekandt founded the company Vosgebois. The original idea, based on a modified wood chipper towed by a truck with a trailer and suitably adapted crane was to produce wood chips from the wood offcuts produced by La Cellulose de Strasbourg and the panel manufacturers in the sawmills of the Vosges (hence the original name Vosgebois!).

A further development came in 1961, when Jean-Paul Unbekandt purchased the “Hartz” box works on the current site and produced beer and wine crates and later wooden pallets, with these handling products enjoying significant growth.

Vosgebois expanded quickly and in just a few years became a major player in the production of pallets in France. A production area for double and triple-wall heavy duty fibreboard packaging was set up in addition to the wood products in 1970.

The current manager Maurice Unbekandt joined the company in 1979. A major new wave of investments in the sawmill activity was approved in 1981 in order to be better able to select the quality of the wood and to diversify the customer base, particularly in the export field (Merchants – Joinery producers – Furniture and parquet manufacturers, etc.).

A company restructuration took place in 1988 where Vosgebois is managed by Marc Rinaldi, Michel Lesur and Maurice Unbekandt. Investments continued, including the acquisition of wood driers to allow for the sale of high-quality dried wood for exportation, particularly in the Asian markets. This partnership ended in 2004, and the sawmill was spun off and sold to Etablissements Ernest Weber, with Maurice Unbekandt acquiring 100% of the packaging business.

Vosgebois Emballages (VBE) was founded on January 1, 2009 through a partial transfer of assets, more specifically the transfer of the complete packaging business by the company Vosgebois in order to separate the “Packaging” activities from the new subcontracting activities in the wood and furnishings sector developed by the manager Maurice Unbekandt.