Smurfit appoints Wright president

MR Paddy Wright will become president and chief operations officer of the Jefferson Smurfit Group on June 1st, number two to group chairman and chief executive, Dr Michael Smurfit. Mr Wright is currently chairman and chief executive of Smurfit Ireland and Britain.

The appointment follows the retirement of the former president and chief operations officer, Mr Howard Kilroy, over a year ago.

Announcing Mr Wright's promotion, Dr Smurfit was adamant the appointment was not the result of, any "outside influence, good, bad or indifferent. He first offered the job to Mr Wright two and a half years ago, when he was planning for Mr Kiroy's retirement, he said.

At that time Mr Wright had rejected the offer "for personal reasons", he said. He had also looked outside the group for a replacement.

"I want to stress that there was knot one fraction of 1 per cent of outside influence on the decision to appoint into this particular job. It is the right thing to do, and Mr Wright is the right man at the right time," Dr Smurfit said.

Mr Wright approached Dr Smurfit some months ago saying that he "felt comfortable" to take on the role, Dr Smurfit said.

After Mr Kilroy retired in March 1995, Dr Smurfit set up an 11 strong executive committee to assist, him in running the group. The market reacted negatively to the move with some fund managers calling through the press for the appointment of a strong number two at the largest Irish industrial group.

Normally, he would not hold a press conference about an internal appointment, Dr Smurfit said, but, he had decided to hold one to "correct some false impressions around".

"I have not had one single complaint from institutions. I cannot respond to pressure through the press. I would much prefer if institutions dealt with us directly with any concerns they had, he said.

Mr Wright described his appointment as a great honour and said he was looking forward to major challenges ahead. Institutional investors were not surprised at the appointment an announcement had been expected.

Smurfit reported record profits of £420 million for 1995. But in deteriorating world paper markets, analysts have been cutting their profit forecasts for the group for the current year and for 1997.

But if US paper giant International Paper succeeds in its attempt to implement a price increase in June, the latest forecasts could turn out to be over pessimistic.