Smurfit Kappa looks to China for future growth

THE Dublin-headquartered international paper and packaging giant, Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) has identified the Chinese market as a potential area for growth, but has denied it is closing in on any immediate return to the Far East.

Prior to its merger with Kappa Group in 2005, Jefferson Smurfit Group (JSG) had operations in China but pulled out of the country as a means of cutting costs in a tightening global marketplace.

A round of individual media briefings under-taken by the group’s management in Britain last week, resulted in the Daily Telegraph reporting that SKG was eagerly looking to re-enter the Chinese market and had already drawn up a shopping list of takeover and joint venture targets in the country.