Tête à Tête #2

We were delighted to welcome Andrew Coffey, CEO of Smurfit Westrock France to our second in the  Tête-à-Tête  series joined by NetworkIrlande President and Equans CEO, Richard Dujardin, for an engaging and insightful conversation.

During this 30-minute lunchtime session, Andrew shared his international journey and brought us through some insights personal, company-specific and industry-specific. 

Starting out with an Economics degree from UCD, Andrew joined Smurfit on their Graduate Training Programme and worked his way up in Europe, first Paris through Sales roles and then spent many years in Italy on the operational side of things. With the merger with Kappa in 2005, Smurfit really excelled in terms of offering an excellent service to European and Latin American clients with proximity to their clients fulfilling their packaging needs to transport their goods from their production lines to their retailers. Further expansion with Westrock in 2024 enabled their size advantage to allow for global deals with clients as they now have a big footprint in the US. The group had a $31 billion turnover in 2025. They are the leader in Europe and the leader in the French market. Andrew took over his current role in 2022, and Smurfit Westrock France operates 50 plants and 3 paper mills with 6000 employees and 7000 active customers.

Andrew walked us through the nature of the business, how capital intensive it is. Moreover, it is also a very efficient and sustainable industry. The company operates a closed-loop, circular model designed to balance both recycled and virgin fibres.  95% of paper-based packaging is recovered and recycled, this primarily from retailers, who are very centralised in France. Even the consumer recycling of remaining paper-based products is very efficient and for whatever may be left, it is biodegradable. He discussed how the water used in the plants is recovered and reused and put back into the national circuit and how the 10-20% of virgin fibres come from managed forests and how this is highly regulated. 

Andrew is married with two teenage children and himself and his Irish wife met at Paris Gaels, a fact which delighted Richard, and he thought it would delight the NetworkIrlande audience too.

There was no time left for questions at the end and it’s fair to say that members finished up the visio feeling very proud of such an international and inspiring Irish success story in Smurfit Westrock. 

We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Andrew for sharing his experience and insights with our members. 

If you were unable to attend the live session, you can still watch the recording: HERE 

We look forward to our next Tête-à-Tête and to sharing the date with you very soon.