Smurfit Kappa has started to talk to unions and works councils about closing or cutting jobs at a number of plants in European countries.

The company said yesterday that its focus was on "uneconomic" plants across the continent.

The Republic is not expected to feature in the process.

Plants in countries including Britain, Spain, Germany, France, Italy and Sweden are "potentially impacted" by the consultation process, according to a Smurfit Kappa statement.

The closures or rationalisations could come across all of the paper and packaging group's main product areas.

Smurfit Kappa, formed from the merger of Jefferson Smurfit and Dutch firm Kappa last December, has about 425 plants across Europe and in Latin America.

The enlarged firm is Europe's biggest paper and packaging firm and employs 43,000 people.

The company declined to detail its rationalisation plans yesterday.

It is likely to be some months before the new shape of Smurfit Kappa emerges.

The firm is already engaged in the disposal of seven plants across Europe so that it can meet the European Commission's conditions for the merger.

The commission ordered that the facilities - in Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Scotland - be sold to address competition concerns.

Smurfit sealed the merger deal at the start of last month by paying €300 million to Kappa's private equity shareholders, Cinven and CVC.

Smurfit also issued new shares and advanced a €75 million subordinated promissory note.

The Irish firm then took a 58.3 per cent shareholding in the new company, with most of this held by Madison Dearborn, the private equity group that took Smurfit private in 2002.