DUBLIN, July 8 (Reuters) - The chief financial officer of newly formed paper packaging giant Smurfit WestRock said consumer demand is coming "along nicely" and at similar levels in the second quarter to the growth seen in the first three months of the year.
Prior to Smurfit Kappa and Westrock completing their merger and commencing trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, Smurfit Kappa had reported 3% volume growth in Europe in the first quarter, and U.S. based WestRock a rebound in demand.
"There's no massive ramp up in anything, but it's tipping along nicely in that sense, the world has not got itself back to an incredibly happy place but what we would have seen as we moved through the second quarter was very similar to the first quarter," Ken Bowles told Reuters in an interview. (Reporting by Padraic Halpin, Editing by Louise Heavens)