Strong performance from top ESG star Smurfit Kappa

Sales at Smurfit Kappa jumped by more than a quarter in 2022 to reach €12.8 billion with chief executive of the Ireland-based paper packaging maker Tony Smurfit saying that “against a year of extraordinary circumstances, 2022 was another highly successful year”.

While sales were up 27 per cent, ebitda increased 38 per cent to €2.36 billion with a margin of 18.4 per cent.

Smurfit continued: “Our performance reflects the ongoing benefits of our investment programme together with our customer-led innovation and sustainability initiatives. SKG’s integrated model, together with our geographic footprint, continues to deliver for all stakeholders.

“For the full year, box volumes were down less than 2%. This slowdown was particularly evidenced in the latter part of the year, especially in the month of December, where we saw stock reductions and downtime taken by customers.

“In 2022 we invested close to €1 billion to support our customers and capitalise on long-term demand growth drivers. We also continue to make progress towards our sustainability goals with investments to reduce our carbon footprint, reduce our impact on the environment and help our customers achieve their own carbon reduction and sustainability goals.

“The Group continued to expand its geographic footprint and product portfolio through acquisitions in 2022. In Europe, we purchased operations in Spain and the UK, while in the Americas we acquired operations in Argentina and Brazil. l Smurfit Kappa has also completed its withdrawal from the Russian market as originally announced in April 2022, and subsequently agreeing to sell the operations to local management, with the approval of the Russian authorities. l Smurfit Kappa has again been recognised as a top ESG performer by leading research and analytics company Morningstar Sustainalytics. Following an analysis of global companies, Smurfit Kappa’s 2022 ESG Risk Rating improved, with the company positioned in the list of Top Rated companies both for the industry and regional categories.

The operations include a bagin-box facility and two corrugated plants in St Petersburg, and a corrugated plant in Moscow. They contributed to 1 per cent of SKG’s global operations.

Morningstar Sustainalytics is a leading global independent ESG research, ratings and data firm that supports investors around the world with the development and implementation of responsible investment strategies. It rates more than 15,600 companies worldwide and many industries.

Commenting on the rating, Garrett Quinn, chief sustainability officer at Smurfit Kappa, said: “It’s an honour to receive recognition from Sustainalytics for a second year which includes improved rankings and recognises our work in the field of sustainability by awarding us top rated both in the geographies and industry we operate in.”