MeadWestvaco will close another two consumer packaging plants by the end of June, the company said yesterday.
The folding carton plants, which convert paperboard into printed packaging using the gravure printing process, are in Richmond, VA, and Cleveland, TN. About 455 workers — 320 in Virginia and 135 in Tennessee — will lose jobs from the closures. Stamford, CT-based MeadWestvaco's corporate operations at the Virginia facility will be unaffected, the company said.
MeadWestvaco said it would take a $9 million charge, to be applied in the company's first-quarter 2003 results, for employee benefits and asset write downs from the closure.
In February, MeadWestvaco announced another consumer packaging plant in Newark, DE, would close in late April. The closure, one of several announced over the past year, is part of a consolidation that resulted from the merger of The Mead Corp. and Westvaco Corp., which formed the company in 2002.
