Smurfit Westrock Plc (‘Smurfit Westrock’) operates as a global leader in sustainable, paper-based packaging with extensive scale, quality products and geographic reach and diversity.
Products
The company’s primary products fall into a number of categories. Primarily, the company produces paper-based packaging products. The company’s vertically integrated system provides raw materials of wood or recovered fiber, which are used to manufacture various grades of board, which are then converted int...
Smurfit Westrock Plc (‘Smurfit Westrock’) operates as a global leader in sustainable, paper-based packaging with extensive scale, quality products and geographic reach and diversity.
Products
The company’s primary products fall into a number of categories. Primarily, the company produces paper-based packaging products. The company’s vertically integrated system provides raw materials of wood or recovered fiber, which are used to manufacture various grades of board, which are then converted into packaging products. The company’s main categories of packaging are corrugated containers, manufactured from containerboard; and consumer packaging, manufactured from paperboard. The company also produces other grades of board, such as solidboard, kraft paper, and graphic board, as well as other packaging products, such as solidboard packaging, paper sacks, and bag-in-box.
Containerboard and Corrugated Containers
Containerboard is the general term that describes the intermediate materials used to manufacture corrugated sheet, namely linerboard and medium.
Linerboard is used to form the inner and outer layers of the corrugated sheet. Linerboard can be manufactured from virgin fiber (known as ‘kraftliner’) or recovered paper (known as ‘testliner’). The recycling of old corrugated cases (‘OCC’) provides the primary source of recovered paper. In general, kraftliner is of higher quality and more versatile than testliner. Linerboard can be surface treated to improve the printing quality through the use of white, mottled, or fully bleached pulp as the top layer.
Medium is used to form the inner layer of the corrugated sheet. It is primarily manufactured from recovered paper, but can also be manufactured from virgin fiber.
The company feeds linerboard and corrugating medium into a corrugator that flutes the medium to specified sizes, glues the linerboard and fluted medium together, and slits and cuts the resulting corrugated paperboard into corrugated sheets whose dimensions fit ultimate customer specifications, and are subsequently converted into corrugated packaging.
Corrugated packaging refers to the conversion of corrugated sheets through the production and sale of corrugated containers and other corrugated products, including displays. Corrugated packaging is used to provide protective packaging for the shipment and distribution of food, paper, health and beauty, and other household, consumer, commercial, and industrial products. Corrugated packaging may also be graphically enhanced for retail sale, particularly in club store locations. The company’s corrugated packaging operations manufacture primarily corrugated sheets, corrugated packaging, and preprinted linerboard for sale to consumer and industrial products manufacturers, and corrugated box manufacturers. The company produces a wide range of high-quality corrugated containers designed to protect, ship, store, promote, and display products made to its customers’ specifications.
Paperboard and Consumer Packaging
Paperboard is a general term that describes the intermediate materials used primarily to produce folding cartons and other consumer packaging products. There are a number of different types of paperboard that can be manufactured using virgin fiber or recovered paper, or a recycled basestock that is laminated with kraftliner. Paperboard can be unbleached, coated, or fully bleached, and manufactured primarily using either wood or recovered fiber as a primary raw material. These are used primarily to manufacture folding cartons and can have specialty characteristics, such as grease masking and microwaveability.
Consumer packaging is used mainly as primary packaging for products, providing convenience, marketing support, and protection for products, and can consist of folding cartons, carriers, and other containers. The company’s folding cartons are used to package items for industries, such as food, paper, beverages, dairy products, confectionery, health and beauty, and other household consumer, commercial, and industrial products, primarily for retail sale. The company’s folding cartons are also used by its customers to attract consumer attention at the point of sale. The company also manufactures express mail packages for the overnight courier industry, provides inserts and labels, as well as rigid packaging and other printed packaging products, such as transaction cards (e.g., credit, debit, etc.), brochures, product literature, marketing materials (such as booklets, folders, inserts, cover sheets, and slipcases), and grower tags and plant stakes for the horticultural market. For the global healthcare market, the company manufactures paperboard packaging for over-the-counter and prescription drugs.
Solidboard and Solid Board Packaging
Solidboard is a layered form of paperboard. It has an outer layer of linerboard, which is laminated onto a solid layer of recycled paper, producing a product that is heavier and more resistant to moisture and cold than corrugated containers. Solidboard is better suited for certain more demanding packaging applications, which may be exposed to wet conditions and freezing temperatures, such as the transportation of fresh products, including fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, poultry, and dairy products. Solidboard sheets are produced in paper mills and converted into solidboard packaging in converting units.
Graphic Board
Graphic board is a heavyweight type of solidboard with distinct properties, including rigidity and stability, which makes it suitable for processing into different applications, such as book covers, game boards, jigsaw puzzles, and lever arch files, onto which sophisticated graphics can be laminated.
Kraft Paper and Paper Sacks
Kraft paper is a grade of paper made primarily from wood, which is used in different applications, the key one being in paper sack production, with the grade being known as sack kraft. Sack kraft is either converted into sacks for industrial use, transporting building materials, agriculture, chemicals, minerals, and animal feed, or bags subject to high-quality graphics for more sophisticated packaging end uses, such as pet food and retail carrier bags. Other kraft paper has a large number of uses, such as but not limited to paper bags, wrapping, and interleaving products.
Bag-In-Box
Bag-in-box is a form of packaging where a liquid is packed in a flexible plastic film or ‘bag’ with a tap attached, which is then generally inserted into a corrugated container.
Geographical Footprint
The company maintains operations in 40 countries, primarily in North America, Latin America, and Europe, and with some operations in Asia, Africa, and Australia. In North America, the company is a leader in corrugated and consumer packaging, containerboard, and paperboard. In Europe, the company is one of the leading companies by production volume in corrugated packaging, containerboard, and bag-in-box, and one of the leading producers of consumer packaging. In Latin America, the company is a large-scale pan-regional player in corrugated packaging and containerboard.
The company operates 62 paper mills (40 of which produce containerboard only, and 10 of which produce paperboard only, with five producing both, four producing containerboard and another grade, one producing paperboard and another grade, and two producing kraft paper only), 459 converting plants (306 of which convert containerboard into corrugated containers, 88 of which convert paperboard into consumer packaging or manufacture leaflets or labels for consumer packaging, five sack plants, and 60 other conversion facilities), 63 recovered fiber facilities, two wood procurement operations in Europe (which together provide raw material for its mills in Europe), two forestry operations in Latin America, and 58 distribution facilities in North America, and 31 other production facilities carrying on other related activities. In addition, the company owns approximately 301,000 acres of forest plantations in Latin America, which support mill operations in addition to propagating trees for planting. The company’s footprint allows it to better serve customers in close proximity to its corrugated box plants.
The company’s geographic reach is organized around three segments: Smurfit Westrock North America (including the U.S., Canada, and Mexico); Smurfit Westrock Europe, Middle East, and Africa (‘MEA’) and Asia-Pacific (‘APAC’); and Smurfit Westrock Latin America (‘LATAM’).
The North America, Europe, MEA, and APAC, and LATAM segments are each highly integrated within the segment, and there are many interdependencies within these operations. They each include a system of mills and plants that primarily produce a number of grades of containerboard that is converted into corrugated containers within each segment, or is sold to third parties.
In addition, the North America segment also produces paperboard, kraft paper, and market pulp; other paper-based packaging, such as folding cartons, inserts, labels, and displays; and also engages in the assembly of displays, as well as the distribution of packaging products.
The Europe, MEA, and APAC segment also produces other types of paper, such as solidboard, graphic board, sack kraft paper, and machine glazed paper (together known as kraft paper) and graphic paper; and other paper-based packaging, such as honeycomb, solidboard packaging, folding cartons, inserts, and labels; and bag-in-box packaging (the latter with operations located in Europe, Argentina, Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., but managed under the Europe, MEA, and APAC segment).
The LATAM segment also comprises forestry; other types of paper, such as paperboard and kraft paper; and paper-based packaging, such as folding cartons and paper sacks.
Business Strategy
The company’s business strategy combines the key strategic priorities of both Smurfit Kappa and WestRock, with a continuing focus on the successful integration of the two businesses.
Segment
North America Segment
The company’s North American operations are in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
Products
The company is one of the largest integrated producers of linerboard, white-top linerboard, and containerboard and kraft paper in North America (including the U.S., Canada, and Mexico), and it serves primarily corrugated packaging markets. The company is one of the largest producers of paperboard in North America, and it operates both integrated virgin and recycled fiber mills. The company’s mill system manufactures paper for its converting system that utilizes the paper in the manufacture and sale of packaging products to its external packaging customers, together with sales of paper to external paper customers.
Corrugated Packaging
The company converts corrugated sheets into corrugated products ranging from one-color protective cartons to graphically brilliant point-of-purchase packaging. The company’s corrugated container plants serve local customers and regional and large national accounts. The company provides customers with innovative packaging solutions to help them promote and sell their products. The company provides structural and graphic design, engineering services, and custom, proprietary, and standard automated packaging machines, offering customers turn-key installation, automation, line integration, and packaging solutions. The company offers a machinery solution that creates pouches that replace single-use plastics, including bubble mailers.
The company designs, manufactures, and, in certain cases, packs temporary displays for sale to consumer products companies and retailers. These displays are used as marketing tools to support new product introductions and specific product promotions in mass merchandising stores, supermarkets, convenience stores, home improvement stores, and other retail locations. The company also designs, manufactures, and, in some cases, pre-assembles permanent displays for these customers. The company makes temporary displays primarily from corrugated paperboard. Unlike temporary displays, permanent displays are restocked with its customers’ product; therefore, they are constructed primarily from metal, plastic, wood, and other durable materials. The company manufactures and distributes point-of-sale material utilizing litho, screen, and digital printing technologies. The company manufactures lithographic laminated packaging for sale to its customers that require packaging with high-quality graphics and strength characteristics.
The company also has distribution operations that generate revenues primarily from the distribution of packaging products and assembly of display products. The company distributes corrugated packaging materials and other specialty packaging products, including stretch film, void fill, carton sealing tape, and other specialty tapes, through its network of warehouses and distribution facilities. The company also provides contract packing services, such as multi-product promotional packing and product manipulation, such as multipacks and onpacks.
The company is one of the largest manufacturers of corrugated packaging in North America, with operations in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. In the year ended December 31, 2024, the company’s corrugated operations in North America produced approximately 83.9 billion square feet, including square feet produced by WestRock before the Combination.
Consumer Packaging
The company’s consumer packaging operations generate revenues primarily from the sale of consumer packaging products, such as folding cartons, inserts, and labels. The company is one of the largest manufacturers of folding cartons in North America, with operations in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The company’s customers generally use its inserts and labels to provide customer product information either inside a secondary package (e.g., a folding carton) or affixed to the outside of a primary package (e.g., a bottle). Folding cartons typically protect customers’ products during shipment and distribution, and employ graphics to promote them at retail. The company prints, coats, die-cuts, and glues the cartons to customer specifications and ships finished cartons to customers for assembling, filling, and sealing. The company employs a broad range of offset, flexographic, gravure, backside printing, coating, and finishing technologies, as well as iridescent, holographic, textured, and dimensional effects to provide differentiated packaging products, and supports its customers with new package development, innovation, design services, and package testing services.
Europe, MEA and APAC Segment
The company’s Europe, MEA, and APAC segment includes a system of mills and box plants that primarily produce a full line of containerboard that is converted into corrugated containers. The company operates in 23 countries across western and eastern Europe. The company’s main European operations are in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, and Austria. The company’s Europe, MEA, and APAC operational management manage a number of operations outside Europe, including four (non-European) facilities that manufacture bag-in-box, located in Argentina, Canada, Mexico, and the United States, a recently inaugurated corrugated plant in Morocco, Africa, a containerboard mill and corrugated plant in India, and consumer packaging operations in China, Japan, and Australia, and therefore such operations are included in the Europe, MEA, and APAC segments.
Products
The company is one of the European leaders in terms of capacity in corrugated packaging, containerboard, consumer packaging, and bag-in-box. The company also operates in several other packaging and paper market segments, such as sack kraft paper, machine glazed paper, graphic board, solidboard, solidboard packaging, and boxboard.
The company’s operations in the Europe, MEA, and APAC segment are highly integrated, with the total production of the mills in 2024 approximately matching the volume of the containerboard that is converted into corrugated containers in its converting plants.
Containerboard and Corrugated Containers
The company operates 14 recycled containerboard mills throughout Europe (two in France, three in Germany, two in each of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Italy, and one in each of Spain, the Czech Republic, and Serbia). The company’s three kraftliner mills, located at Piteå (Sweden), Facture (France), and Nettingsdorfer (Austria), are among the largest and the lowest-cost kraftliner mills in Western Europe.
In the year ended December 31, 2024, the company’s containerboard mills in Europe, MEA, and APAC produced approximately 6.2 million tons.
The company is one of the leading producers of corrugated containers in Europe by capacity, with 190 production facilities (comprising corrugated plants, sheet feeders, sheet plants, and other specialized facilities). The company has an extensive geographic presence in western Europe and a growing presence in eastern and southeastern Europe. The company also has a containerboard mill and corrugated conversion facility in India. In 2024, the company’s corrugated operations in Europe, MEA, and APAC produced approximately 97.5 billion square feet.
Consumer Packaging
The company operates 40 consumer packaging plants in Europe in 12 countries, which primarily manufacture folding cartons, labels, and leaflets for consumer packaging markets. The company is one of the largest producers in Europe. The company also has operations in China, Japan, and Australia in consumer packaging.
Other Paperboard and Other Paper
In the year ended December 31, 2024, the company produced approximately 0.7 million tons of other paperboard, comprising sack kraft, machine glazed paper, graphic board, solidboard, and boxboard in five mills located in Germany and Spain. The company is one of the leading manufacturers of both solidboard and solidboard packaging in Europe.
The company’s containerboard mill in the Netherlands also produces graphic paper for use in inserts. Its production in the year ended December 31, 2024, was approximately 0.2 million tons.
Bag-in-box
The company is one of the largest European manufacturers in the high-growth bag-in-box market, a leading European supplier of bags for bag-in-box packaging (primarily packaged in corrugated boxes) for the wine market, and a significant global supplier for taps for bag-in-box packaging for the wine market. The company has sales offices and agencies across more than 25 countries and nine bag-in-box or tap manufacturing facilities located in France, Spain, Italy, Canada, Argentina, Mexico, Germany, and the United States.
Latin America Segment
The company is a leading business in containerboard and corrugated containers in Latin America.
In Latin America, the company is one of the largest producers of corrugated containers and containerboard, by volume, with corrugated operations in nine countries. The company’s largest operations in Latin America are in Brazil and Colombia, with other corrugated operations in Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Chile, and Peru, and other operations in Ecuador and El Salvador.
Products
The company’s Latin American segment mill operations consist of nine mills in three countries (Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina) producing containerboard, consumer packaging board, and sack kraft paper, with combined productions of around 1.5 million tons in the year ended December 31, 2024 (of which containerboard represented around 1.3 million tons).
The Latin American segment also has 28 corrugated plants in nine countries – Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Peru, Chile, and Puerto Rico. Production for the Latin American segment for the year ended December 31, 2024, was approximately 23 billion square feet of corrugated containers.
The company also has folding carton operations in Costa Rica and El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, paper sack operations in Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic, and a recycling plant in Nicaragua.
Sales and Marketing
The company provides packaging products for the transportation of a diverse range of consumer and industrial goods, such as processed and fresh food, agricultural products, beverages, industrial and consumer electronics, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals, and a range of other products, as well as higher value-added corrugated products, such as those featuring enhanced graphics used for point-of-sale displays and consumer and shelf-ready packaging. During 2024, the majority of the company’s products were sold to the fast-moving consumer goods sector.
A proportion of the company’s customers are considered pan-regional, and the company has teams devoted to managing and servicing the requirements of these customers. These teams work in conjunction with local operations. Another proportion of the company’s customers are multi-national accounts, serviced in more than one country (or state, in the case of the U.S.), but not across a full region. The company has also built teams to service their requirements. The remaining customers are considered either multi-site national accounts within a single country or local accounts, and marketing and sales activity for these customers is primarily undertaken by local businesses.
The company markets its products through its own sales force. The company also markets a number of its products, primarily paper, through independent sales representatives and independent distributors. The company generally pays its sales personnel a combination of base salary, commissions, and annual bonus. The company pays its independent sales representatives on a commission basis. Orders from its customers generally do not have significant lead times.
A considerable portion of the company’s converted product sales are made under customer contracts with terms ranging from one to three years. These agreements typically provide that the customer will source a specified percentage of its total product requirements from the company on an exclusive basis, and typically allow for raw material cost movements to be passed through to end pricing.
The company’s marketing strategy focuses on product quality, design differentiation, and high-caliber customer service. Through continuous communication with customers, the company’s goal is to improve its service quality and proactively anticipate or respond to customers’ needs.
Seasonality
While the company’s businesses are not materially impacted by seasonality, there is some variability in demand that occurs from quarter to quarter (year ended December 31, 2024), with net sales in the first quarter of each year typically being the lowest. Generally, the company expects more of its earnings and cash flows to be generated in the second half of the year than in the first half of the fiscal year due to these variations and other factors.
Environmental Regulations
The company also operates in countries or regions that have already adopted GHG emissions trading schemes, such as the European Union, where it is subject to the impact on energy prices and compliance from the EU Emission Trading Scheme Directive.
History
Smurfit Westrock Plc was founded in 1934. The company was incorporated in 2007.
