NOT MANY HOMEGROWN Irish companies can claim to be genuine leaders in their sector.
It’s why the ones which do make it tend to attract a lot of attention – Ryanair in aviation, Flutter in gambling, and so on.
Why then, the comparative lack of love for Smurfit Westrock?
It’s a name you won’t hear often outside the business pages. It’s likely due to the sector it’s in – packaging manufacturing isn’t the most thrilling of industries.
But money is money, and the business makes plenty of it.
This has been boosted by the fact that Smurfit Westrock is a relatively new corporate entity. It was formed in 2024 following a merger between Ireland-based Smurfit Kappa and its US rival, Westrock. The new entity has its headquarters in Dublin.
The deal was worth an estimated $25 billion (€21.61 billion) or so, which is likely the largest ever merger involving an indigenous Irish company.
For the fact-checkers among you – there have been some transactions which rival it, such as the 2015 acquisition of Covidien by Medtronic. But both of those firms began life as US businesses, and the deal was about Medtronic shifting its headquarters to Ireland for tax reasons.
So, like we said – the Smurfit Westrock merger is the largest merger involving an indigenous Irish company.
With that in mind, enough time has passed to look at the deal and ask – was it a success?
In many areas – yes. But there are still plenty of question marks.
What is Smurfit Westrock?
Before we dive in, it’s worth reiterating what Smurfit Westrock actually does. Its business mainly consists of:
- Corrugated packaging, including shipping cartons. It also makes packaging for e-commerce, such as boxes for online shopping orders
- Paper goods and cardboard boxes
- Packaging for other business areas, like retail and point-of-sale
- Forestry (ie, growing paper) and recycling
Westrock traditionally had more of a focus on North America, while Smurfit Kappa was the big boy in Europe.
On the face of it, it seems a very obvious merger. Mix both businesses, and you have a company which is a leader in the two richest continents in the world.
Except, mergers rarely tend to be as simple as that. Harvard Business Review estimates that about 70% of them end up as failures.
Many companies don’t deliver good returns for shareholders after mergers, failing to follow through on expected savings or new business streams.
Ego also plays a part. CEOs also like to oversee expansion – i.e., *I* will be the one to take the business into brave new markets. *I* will be the one to conquer the world (or at least our niche sector).
This often results in overpaying, going back to the problem of poor returns for shareholders.
How has the company done?
OK, so we’ve established that mergers aren’t easy to handle. So how has Smurfit Westrock done?
The picture is a bit mixed, but broadly speaking, the company has avoided many of the typical merger traps.
The most obvious area to look at is revenue. Does the new business bring in more money as a single entity? Well, yes.
In the 12 months to the end of 2024, Smurfit Westrock recorded sales of $21 billion (€18.16 billion).
In 2025, the first full year of operating as a single unit, the firm’s sales rose significantly to $31 billion (€26.8 billion).
This is one of the clearest signs that the merger has gone fairly well. Smurfit Westrock now has a much bigger global platform.
Of course, expenses also jumped alongside that. But still, the company’s net profit more than doubled, rising from $319 million to $699 million (€604.31 million).
This was helped by the fact that the two businesses were able to realise combined savings of over $400 million (€345.81 million), due to complimentary parts of their operations.
This wasn’t good news for everyone – Smurfit Westrock said it let go 3,000 employees during 2025 (it currently employs about 97,000 people).
But from an investor perspective – revenue is up, profits are up, savings are being made. All good, right?
Well if that’s the case, why has the firm’s stock been largely stagnant? Its opening price on its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange was a touch over $43 (€37).
That was back in July 2024. Two years later, and the firm’s share price stands at… just over $43.
Analysts still have several concerns.
A key one is whether containerboard prices will drop in the near term, with signs across the sector that this may be a risk. It led one bank to cut its price target.
Another worry is that earnings in the final three months of 2025 dropped compared to the same period in 2024. Net income fell pretty significantly, from $146 million (€126.22 million) to $98 million (€84.72 million).
Management cited “difficult market conditions” during the quarter, with talk of ‘downtime to balance our system’.
This goes back to the concern that the Dublin-based company could be facing a weaker economic environment, leading to softer demand and lower prices.
However, other commentators have said that the company is trading below its fair market value. For example, one analyst said that based on its current performance, its share price should be around $53 (€46) compared to its actual price of $43.
It said this is because the company is due to finish several loss-making contracts in North America soon, and can then move onto more profitable ventures.
Smurfit Westrock itself seems confident. In a recent update, it pledged to increase earnings by 40% by 2030 and deliver a “significant and growing return to shareholders”.
Most analysts have a positive view of the business and rate its stock a ‘buy’.
So, what does that all mean?
The view overall is that Smurfit Kappa and Westrock have integrated pretty well and managed to take a bigger slice of the pie in their market.
The European side of the business has typically had strong margins, but most think that North America is the biggest growth opportunity. The hope is that Smurfit management can lift profitability over time.
But there are still concerns over a possible slowdown in the company’s market.
It’s probably fair to say that while the jury is still out to some degree, the merger is going reasonably well.
Shareholders who have seen essentially no return in two years may be unimpressed. But strong revenue growth and the possibility of further earnings boosts means the deal certainly isn’t one to throw on the ‘70% failure rate’ scrapheap.
Smurfit Westrock may not be Ireland’s sexiest company. But it is one which has proven to be solid – and has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a small box-maker in 1930s Rathmines.