Smurfit Kappa wins PepsiCo’s Supplier of the Year award for excellence in sustainability, speed to market, business performance; firms have collaborated on various projects, including a paper-based box to replace plastic bag for Walkers crisps multipack

November 15, 2023 (press release) –

Global leader in sustainable packaging wins prestigious ‘Supplier of the Year’ award

Smurfit Kappa has distinguished itself amongst all PepsiCo’s suppliers to win its ‘Supplier of the Year’ award. The prize recognises excellence across sustainability, speed to market and overall business performance.

The global leader in sustainable packaging is PepsiCo’s sole supplier for its European food business providing innovative solutions for many of its brands including Walkers, Doritos, Lay’s and Cheetos. It also supplies PepsiCo in several countries in the Americas including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and the US.

The award is the latest milestone in a fifteen-year partnership during which PepsiCo and Smurfit Kappa have collaborated on various stand-out projects.

One such example was for PepsiCo’s Walkers crisps brand in the UK. Smurfit Kappa developed a 100% recyclable paper-based box to replace the plastic bag that its multipacks originally came in. By switching to cardboard,, was able to increase its pallet load and deliver a faster, more efficient process.

Sherif Eskandar, Chief Procurement Officer of PepsiCo Europe, said: “This award recognises Smurfit Kappa for its outstanding performance and unwavering dedication to advancing our PepsiCo Positive agenda. Smurfit Kappa exceeded all our expectations in terms of delivering value, showing commitment to delivering our objectives, driving innovation, cost transformation and sustainability.”

Saverio Mayer, Smurfit Kappa’s CEO of Europe, added: “We are thrilled to receive this award from PepsiCo which acknowledges our steadfast commitment to  and . Seeing how many excellent suppliers from a vast number of sectors were in the room, it was both an honour and a privilege to get this prize. Our partnership is based on our shared determination to do more to protect the planet. This is recognition of the excellent work of our teams, including our 1,000 world-class designers and the talented employees in our plants, who deliver quality, innovative packaging solutions that achieve real and measurable sustainability benefits for our customers.”