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By the numbers: Q4 and full-year 2025
Q4 net sales: $7.6B
Up 0.5% year over year
Full-year net sales: $31.2B
Compared with $21.1B in 2024, the year Smurfit Kappa acquired WestRock
Q4 net income: $98M
Compared with $146M in Q4 2024
Full-year net income: $699M
Compared with $319M for full-year 2024
- Overview: 2025 was the first full year Smurfit Kappa operated as a combined company, following Smurfit Kappa’s acquisition of WestRock in July 2024. During an in-person event in New York on Wednesday that the company also live streamed, CEO Tony Smurfit said he was pleased with the company’s 2025 performance, especially considering the “general economic environment has been as difficult as I have seen in my lifetime, for such an extended period of time.” Volumes in North America experienced “a sharp fall,” while those in Europe remained stable and Latin America grew, he said. The North American sector “shed uneconomic businesses” to reduce “loss makers” within the system.
- Medium-term plan: After the earnings presentation, executives discussed the company’s newly released updated medium-term plan to accelerate growth, with targets through 2030. It is “not a change in philosophy, but a continuation, most importantly an acceleration” of the business model, said CFO Ken Bowles. “It's the actions we are taking within the business that truly drives a step change in our earnings.” The plan targets adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of roughly $7 billion by the end of 2030, in addition to market growth of 1.6% in North America, 1.7% in Europe and 2.0% in Latin America. The company aims to generate $14 billion of cumulative discretionary free cash flow.
- Regional strategies: The North American business unit “is the biggest value creation opportunity in our medium term plan,” representing roughly 60% of the company’s earnings, said Laurent Sellier, CEO of Smurfit Westrock North America. Since the company combination in 2024, the region has simplified how it operates, reduced its workforce by more than 4,600 people and exceeded synergy targets, he said.
- Investments: Smurfit Westrock expects $2.4 billion to $2.8 billion in capital expenditures annually. The focus will be on a high volume of smaller projects, with the average project costing less than $4 million and none more than $200 million.
- Innovation hubs: Innovation is a focal point for investments in the coming years. Already, packaging designers are using AI tools that help develop products more efficiently and “deliver market-ready solutions in weeks instead of months.” The company recently opened a customer experience center in Richmond, Virginia, and soon will open a third in the Chicago area, adding to more than 34 globally. These centers serve as innovation hubs and use AI and data-fueled applications to “win business and ensure we better implement solutions that are possible, profitable, desirable and better for the planet,” Smurfit said.
- Closures: On Monday, Smurfit Westrock announced that it would close one of the machines at its paper mill in La Tuque, Quebec, as well as an extrusion facility in Pointe-aux-Trembles, Quebec, that converts material produced on the La Tuque machine. The closures are “another step in our portfolio optimization,” Smurfit said on Wednesday’s call. The closures are slated for March, according to a spokesperson, and layoffs will include approximately 30 people at La Tuque and 60 people at Pointe-aux-Trembles. Executives said the company will continue to examine its footprint.
- Outlook: So far in 2026 the operating environment has been better, executives said, barring weather impacts that occurred in Europe and the United States. “I think everybody kind of sees the second half being progressively better than the first half,” Bowles said. Executives project first-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $1 billion to $1.2 billion, and full-year adjusted EBITDA between $5 billion to $5.3 billion. Capital expenditures for the year are anticipated to be between $2.4 billion to $2.5 billion.
