Cardboard box supplier Smurfit Kappa plays the green card

Smurfit Kappa emphasised its green credentials yesterday as it revealed that a slowdown in retail and manufacturing had hit demand for its packaging products and trimmed 14 per cent off its bottom line.

Its profits fell from €769 million in the first half of 2022 to €659 million in the same period this year, while turnover dropped by 9 per cent from €6.4 billion to €5.8 billion. Nevertheless, it said it was broadly pleased with its performance, “achieved in a challenging macroeconomic environment and [against] strong comparators in the prior year”.

The FTSE 100 group is one of the world’s biggest suppliers of paper-based packaging, with more than 47,000 staff at 350 production sites in 36 countries. It says its products are “100 per cent