The unit, based near Chelmsford in Essex, employs 12 staff, who will all join Smurfit along with Coutts chief operating officer Chris Cahn.

Smurfit UK will pay 1.5m immediately, 250,000 in December, and 500,000 in 12 months subject to the business meeting performance criteria.

The unit was part of Coutts Packaging division. It had sales of 5.13m last year and 2.67m for the first six months of 2002. Clients include Viking and Spicers.

Coutts, which designs and manufactures in-store merchandising and packaging, plans to focus on the much higher margin retail communications market.