On 1 April 2022, five weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the €12.8bn (£11.26bn) turnover packaging giant announced that it planned to exit the Russian market in an orderly manner.

Its businesses there – including a bag-in-box facility and two corrugated plants in St Petersburg, and a corrugated plant in Moscow – have been sold to local management with the deal completed after the necessary approvals by Russian authorities and all the related administrative separation tasks. 

Smurfit Kappa had previously said that its Russian businesses did not represent a separate major line of the business, and it did not split out its sales there. The group described its operations in Russia as representing “less than 2% of any of the group’s key performance indicators”.

The disposal has resulted in a €128m exceptional charge related to the impairment of its assets in Russia, with a €50m write-off of the cash balances held there, and an €8m loss in trade receivables.