It all began in 1962 when a Canadian Packaging Director was asked to visit the Interpack Show in Dusseldorf with the aim of searching out peer companies with manufacturing systems for the packaging industry.

In fact, Ed Maylem (Packaging Director at Rolph-Clark-Stone-Benallack Ltd) found another 8 like-minded family-run packaging companies.

One of these was Henry Steiger who had a packaging system called Servo. He was interested in putting together a group which could market and manufacture packaging systems.

These discussions led to the first meeting of 9 family-owned companies which took place in Berne, Switzerland.

Legal papers were drawn up and a second meeting was held in Edinburgh.󠁿

On 30th August 1963 a limited company was named and the INDEPENDENT PACKAGING GROUP LTD was founded.

In 1971 the limited company became an Association with 13 members and in 1998 it was renamed as the INTERNATIONAL PACKAGING GROUP.

60 years on and according to Ed Zumbiel, the current Chairman “the IPG remains the unparalleled ‘gold standard’ among packaging associations worldwide” .