Oswald will take over from Wilhelm Hörmanseder, who has been with the Mayr-Melnhof for 30 years, the past 18 as CEO.

Chairman of the supervisory board Rainer Zellner said: “With his international industry expertise and his long-term management experience Peter Oswald is for us the ideal person to take over as CEO of Mayr-Melnhof Karton AG.”

Mondi announced that Oswald was leaving at the end of last week, after three years in the top job, but there was no information about why he was going or his new role at the time.

Today (15 January), Mondi said it had “since been advised that Peter will be appointed to the management board of Mayr-Melnhof Karton with effect from 1 April 2020.”

Oswald leaves Mondi on 31 March, and takes up the Mayr-Melnhof role on 1 April.

Mayr-Melnhof had sales of €2.3bn (£1.97bn) last year. It operates seven mills and claims to be the world’s largest producer of coated recycled cartonboard, as well as being Europe’s biggest folding carton producer.

The group has a £54m turnover folding carton business in the UK, located in Deeside.