Smurfit Westrock Plc, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, distributes, and sells containerboard, corrugated containers, and other paper-based packaging products. The company produces containerboard; packaging of corrugated containers; consumer packaging; and offers solid board, kraft paper, and graphic board, as well as other packaging products, such as solidboard packaging, paper sacks and bag-in-box. It produces linerboard and corrugated medium, paperboard, and …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Strong Liquidity BufferLiquidity position is strong (score 0.73), providing operational cushion.
Key risks
Commodity Pressure / Weak DifferentiationGross margin at 36.4th percentile with high volatility suggests weak pricing power or commoditized products.
ROIC Below WACC or PeersROIC at 27.3th percentile suggests inefficient capital deployment.
The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks
against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.
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Smurfit WestRock plc ranks #18 of 26
scored companies in Packaging & Containers by moat score — the top 69%.
The widest moat in the group is Reynolds Consumer Products Inc. (REYN)
at 83/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near SW in Packaging & Containers
Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.
Cost Advantage
Score 41
· 15% of the moat score
A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.
Customer Stickiness
Score 32
· 15% of the moat score
Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.
Capital Efficiency
Score 34
· 18% of the moat score
Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.
Resilience
Score 55
· 17% of the moat score
Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.
Scale & Market Position
Score 25
· 15% of the moat score
Scale matters only when it converts into economics.
Smurfit WestRock plc (SW) scores 35 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as developing. It ranks #18 of 26 scored companies in Packaging & Containers, the top 69%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 25 companies in Packaging & Containers. Its strongest defense is Resilience (55/100) and its weakest is Scale & Market Position (25/100).
How does Smurfit WestRock plc compare with other Packaging & Containers companies?
Smurfit WestRock plc ranks #18 of 26 scored companies in Packaging & Containers by moat score. The widest moat in Packaging & Containers is Reynolds Consumer Products Inc. (REYN) at 83/100. The companies ranked closest are Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A. (AMBP) at 42 just above it and Ranpak Holdings Corp (PACK) at 30 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 25 companies in Packaging & Containers. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Smurfit WestRock plc scored with the Corporate Default template?
Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.
Which competitive defenses are measured for Smurfit WestRock plc?
The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and SW scores: Pricing Power (28), Cost Advantage (41), Customer Stickiness (32), Capital Efficiency (34), Resilience (55), Scale & Market Position (25). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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