History

Our story can be traced back to the hand-made rigid box making business started in 1940 by the Smith brothers in East London. Since then, the company has grown continuously.

[translated] Early Years

[translated] The Company began in 1940, as David S. Smith, manufacturing cartons. The business was incorporated in 1960 and was listed on the London Stock Exchange on 3 March 1986.

1980s

[translated] The Group grew rapidly during the 1980s with the acquisitions of St Regis Paper Company in 1986 for £83 million and Kemsley Paper Mill in 1988 for £11 million. The initial development into plastic packaging occurred with the purchases of Corrugated Products for £12 million and Waddington & Duval for £2 million.

1990s

[translated] Growth continued during the 1990s through a combination of organic development and acquisitions. The Group's largest paper mill, Kemsley, was upgraded between 1993 and 1996 at a cost of £110 million. The £170 million acquisition of Kaysersberg Packaging in 1991 added a continental European presence particularly in heavy duty corrugated packaging. In addition, the Kaysersberg purchase provided a continental position in the plastic packaging market. The Group acquired Spicers in 1993 for £93 million. John Dickinson, a UK manufacturer of envelopes, books and pads, was acquired in 1996. In 1998, a new conventional corrugated plant was opened at Fordham in the UK.

2000s

In 2001 the Company changed its name from David S. Smith (Holdings) PLC to DS Smith Plc.

Headline 3

Headline 4

In 2001, a number of UK corrugated packaging operations, previously owned by Danisco, were acquired for £21 million. The acquisition of Linpac Containers in March 2004 for £167 million made the Group the UK's largest producer of corrugated packaging. Severnside Recycling was enlarged in 2004 through the acquisition of BPB Recycling. In February 2008, the Group acquired New Thames Paper Mill, which is adjacent to St Regis' paper mill at Kemsley in Kent, in order to modify it to produce high-quality lightweight corrugated case material.

In Italy, a second corrugated packaging factory at Lari was opened in 2002. The Polish corrugated factory at Kielce was modernised and a new second factory at Kutno was opened in 2005.

DS Smith's position in liquid packaging and dispensing was built through the acquisitions of Packaging Systems LLC (trading under the name Rapak) for £17 million in 2000 and Zewathener GmbH for £17.5 million in 2002.

Spicers acquired Plein Ciel in 2001 and launched its Spanish business in 2002 with a distribution centre at Barcelona, and in November 2004 launched its Italian business with a distribution centre near to Milan. In October 2005, Spicers further extended its European coverage by acquiring Timmermans, the largest office products wholesaler in the Benelux region. The John Dickinson office products manufacturing business was sold in July 2005.

2010-Present

In September 2010 DS Smith acquired Otor, a French corrugated packaging business, providing DS Smith Packaging France with a leading position in corrugated packaging for consumer goods. In December 2011 DS Smith announced the completion of the disposal of Spicers to Unipapel SA. In January 2012 DS Smith announced the proposed acquisition of SCA Packaging, accompanied by an equity issue. On 30 June 2012 SCA Packaging became part of the DS Smith Group.