Smurfit Kappa: a site set up for success

Smurfit Kappa, Europe's leading producer of corrugated board packaging, has expanded its Rethel plant to bring its two Ardennes sites under one roof.

With sales of around €8.5 billion and almost 46,000 staff worldwide, the Smurfit Kappa Group is a key player in the cardboard packaging sector.

It offers a comprehensive range of packaging solutions for industry, agrifood, the alcohol trade, e-commerce and logistics. Present in 36 countries with more than 350 production sites, the group has its own forests, paper mills and recycling plants to control the entire value chain.

In French Ardennes, corrugated board packaging is now manufactured at a single site. Smurfit Kappa has invested a total of €24 million, with financial support of €300,000 from Région Grand Est, in this expansion project in the L'Étoile zone by the motorway.

The building has been extended by 8200 sqm to more than 20,000 sqm to accommodate the 135 Ardennes employees. Until now, the town-centre site supplied the cardboard sheets, which were then converted into packaging at the second site, involving around 40 round trips by lorry a day and inconveniencing local residents. This investment should save the company several hundred thousand euros a year, while improving its carbon footprint.

Smurfit Kappa has also acquired a new, more efficient corrugator, which means it no longer has to be supplied by the Épernay site, which means six to eight fewer deliveries per day.

By investing in production facilities and real estate, the Irish group is consolidating its presence in French Ardennes with a fine showcase on the Paris-Benelux route.

Smurfit Kappa - Paper | Packaging | Solutions

By Ardennes Développement, the Ardennes economic development agency - ardennes-developpement.com