MeadWestvaco
Encyclopedia
MeadWestvaco Corp. is an American packaging solutions company based in Richmond, Virginia
. It has approximately 23,000 employees. In February 2006, it moved its corporate headquarters to Richmond, Virginia
. In March 2008 the company announced a change by which it would use "MWV" as its brand; however the legal name of the company remains MeadWestvaco.
, Amaray, Dosepak and Vision. MeadWestvaco holds leading positions in the markets it serves. MeadWestvaco manages over 3 million acres (12,000 km²) of forestlands meeting stringent environmental standards and certified to Sustainable Forestry Initiative standards.
Source: MeadWestvaco Financial Statements on Hoovers
, and Westvaco (originally the Piedmont
Pulp and Paper Company and then The West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company).
The ancestor of the Mead Paper Company started out in the paper business in 1846 but did not adopt the name Mead until 1882. Over the decades, Mead diversified into many different businesses and economic sectors, through purchases, mergers and joint ventures. It was first listed on the New York Stock Exchange
in 1935. In 1966, Mead acquired Westab, which had already merged with the 1960 union of Montag Brothers Paper Company and Champion Paper.
In 1968, Mead entered the information technology
sector by acquiring a small company called Data Corporation for $6 million, and renamed it Mead Data Central. Mead was originally interested in an inkjet printing
system developed by Data. However, Data had also been working on a full-text information retrieval system for the U.S. Air Force, and by 1967 had adapted this product to the task of indexing and searching legal precedent as part of an experiment with the Ohio State Bar. After an Arthur D. Little
study indicated that the information retrieval product had a promising future, Mead Data Central launched it as the LEXIS legal research system in 1973. In December 1994, Mead sold the LexisNexis
system to Reed Elsevier
for $1.5 billion.
The U.S. state
of Illinois
subsequently audited Mead's income tax
returns and charged Mead an additional $4 million in income tax and penalties for the sale of LexisNexis; Mead paid the tax under protest, then sued for a refund in an Illinois state court. On April 15, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with Mead that the Illinois courts had incorrectly applied the Court's precedents on whether Illinois could constitutionally apply its income tax to Mead, an out-of-state, Ohio-based corporation. The Court reversed and remanded so that the lower courts could apply the correct test and determine whether Mead and Lexis were a "unitary" business.
In 2005, the Papers business unit—including both Mead and Westvaco paper mills—was sold to the investment firm Cerberus Capital Management
for about $2.3 billion. The new company is called NewPage Corporation
,which operated from Dayton, Ohio
for a time until it outgrew its facilities. NewPage is currently headquartered in Miamisburg, Ohio
.
In 2008, MeadWestvaco sold its Charleston, SC kraft paper mill to Kapstone
Paper and Packaging.
The company owns large tracts of original Westvaco land in northern Greenbrier County, West Virginia
. The company is relatively lenient regarding recreational land use by private citizens, including hunting, fishing, and the digging of ramps
(wild leeks), and unimproved roads can be used to access the area from Anjean
and Richwood
. MeadWestvaco, however, does not tolerate destruction of property or the use of ATVs.
MeadWestvaco began using the "MWV" brand in 2008.
have identified MeadWestvaco as the 57th-largest corporate producer of air pollution
in the United States, with roughly 35,000 pounds of toxic chemicals released annually into the air. Major pollutants indicated by the study include sulfuric acid
, chlorine dioxide
, chlorine
, and methyl iodide.
MWV has taken steps to improve its environmental impact by upholding both mandated and voluntary performance standards. Since 2005, it has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, a system that tracks the financial performance of leading sustainability-driven companies worldwide. MWV meets the carbon reduction targets of the Chicago Climate Exchange
(CCX), the world's first and North America's only legally binding rules-based greenhouse gas emissions allowance trading system. It also holds leadership positions in and actively supports Sustainable Packaging Coalition, Cerflor, CCX, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Abundant Forests Alliance, Duke University Climate Chance Policy Partnership and Sustainable Forestry Initiative
.
The Foundation’s 2007 contributions totaled roughly $3.7million. Funds were allocated to the following categories: United Way, education, environment, health & human services, culture & art, and civic organizations. MWV employees, families, and friends also contributed over 46,000 volunteer hours to schools, charitable organizations, and public institutions.
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
. It has approximately 23,000 employees. In February 2006, it moved its corporate headquarters to Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
. In March 2008 the company announced a change by which it would use "MWV" as its brand; however the legal name of the company remains MeadWestvaco.
Overview
MeadWestvaco is a producer of packaging, specialty papers, consumer and office products and specialty chemicals. The company has 153 operating and office locations in 30 countries, and serves customers in over 100 countries. Its consumer brands include Mead, AT-A-GLANCE, Day Runner, Cambridge, Columbian and Five Star. The company’s paperboard, package and paper brands include Carrier Kote, Custom Kote, Printkote, Tango, DigipakDigipak
Digipak is a patented style of CD, DVD or BD packaging, and is a registered trademark of AGI World Ltd., an Atlas Holdings company.-Features:...
, Amaray, Dosepak and Vision. MeadWestvaco holds leading positions in the markets it serves. MeadWestvaco manages over 3 million acres (12,000 km²) of forestlands meeting stringent environmental standards and certified to Sustainable Forestry Initiative standards.
Financial Information
| 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Net Sales (US$M) | 6,637 | 6,906 | 6,530 | 6,170 |
| Net Earnings (Loss) (US$M) | 90 | 285 | 93 | 28 |
Source: MeadWestvaco Financial Statements on Hoovers
History
MeadWestvaco was formed in January 2002 as the result of a merger between The Mead Corporation of Dayton, OhioDayton, Ohio
Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
, and Westvaco (originally the Piedmont
Piedmont, West Virginia
Piedmont is a town in Mineral County, West Virginia, United States. It is part of the 'Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area'. The population was 1,014 at the 2000 census. Piedmont was chartered in 1856...
Pulp and Paper Company and then The West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company).
The ancestor of the Mead Paper Company started out in the paper business in 1846 but did not adopt the name Mead until 1882. Over the decades, Mead diversified into many different businesses and economic sectors, through purchases, mergers and joint ventures. It was first listed on the New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
in 1935. In 1966, Mead acquired Westab, which had already merged with the 1960 union of Montag Brothers Paper Company and Champion Paper.
In 1968, Mead entered the information technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
sector by acquiring a small company called Data Corporation for $6 million, and renamed it Mead Data Central. Mead was originally interested in an inkjet printing
Inkjet printer
An inkjet printer is a type of computer printer that creates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper. Inkjet printers are the most commonly used type of printer and range from small inexpensive consumer models to very large professional machines that can cost up to thousands of...
system developed by Data. However, Data had also been working on a full-text information retrieval system for the U.S. Air Force, and by 1967 had adapted this product to the task of indexing and searching legal precedent as part of an experiment with the Ohio State Bar. After an Arthur D. Little
Arthur D. Little
Arthur D. Little is an international management consulting firm originally headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and formally incorporated by that name in 1909 by Arthur Dehon Little, an MIT chemist who had discovered acetate. Arthur D. Little pioneered the concept of contracted...
study indicated that the information retrieval product had a promising future, Mead Data Central launched it as the LEXIS legal research system in 1973. In December 1994, Mead sold the LexisNexis
LexisNexis
LexisNexis Group is a company providing computer-assisted legal research services. In 2006 it had the world's largest electronic database for legal and public-records related information...
system to Reed Elsevier
Reed Elsevier
Reed Elsevier is a publisher and information provider operating in the science, medical, legal, risk and business sectors. It is listed on several of the world's major stock exchanges. It is a FTSE 100 and FT500 Global company...
for $1.5 billion.
The U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
subsequently audited Mead's income tax
Income tax
An income tax is a tax levied on the income of individuals or businesses . Various income tax systems exist, with varying degrees of tax incidence. Income taxation can be progressive, proportional, or regressive. When the tax is levied on the income of companies, it is often called a corporate...
returns and charged Mead an additional $4 million in income tax and penalties for the sale of LexisNexis; Mead paid the tax under protest, then sued for a refund in an Illinois state court. On April 15, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with Mead that the Illinois courts had incorrectly applied the Court's precedents on whether Illinois could constitutionally apply its income tax to Mead, an out-of-state, Ohio-based corporation. The Court reversed and remanded so that the lower courts could apply the correct test and determine whether Mead and Lexis were a "unitary" business.
In 2005, the Papers business unit—including both Mead and Westvaco paper mills—was sold to the investment firm Cerberus Capital Management
Cerberus Capital Management
Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is one of the largest private equity investment firms in the United States. The firm is based in New York City, and run by -year-old financier Steve Feinberg. Former U.S...
for about $2.3 billion. The new company is called NewPage Corporation
NewPage Corporation
NewPage Corporation, based in Miamisburg, Ohio, is a leading producer of coated paper in North America.The company produces coated papers in sheets and rolls with many finishes and weights to offer design flexibility for a wide array of end uses...
,which operated from Dayton, Ohio
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
for a time until it outgrew its facilities. NewPage is currently headquartered in Miamisburg, Ohio
Miamisburg, Ohio
Miamisburg is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States. The population was 20,181 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area...
.
In 2008, MeadWestvaco sold its Charleston, SC kraft paper mill to Kapstone
Kapstone
KapStone Paper and Packaging is an American pulp and paper company based in Northbrook, IL.The company has Kraft paper manufacturing facilities in Roanoke Rapids, NC and North Charleston, SC as well as a lumber mill in Summerville, SC...
Paper and Packaging.
The company owns large tracts of original Westvaco land in northern Greenbrier County, West Virginia
Greenbrier County, West Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 34,453 people, 14,571 households, and 9,922 families residing in the county. The population density was 34 people per square mile . There were 17,644 housing units at an average density of 17 per square mile...
. The company is relatively lenient regarding recreational land use by private citizens, including hunting, fishing, and the digging of ramps
Wild leek
Allium tricoccum — known as the ramp, spring onion, ramson, wild leek, wild garlic, and, in French, ail sauvage and ail des bois — is an early spring vegetable, a perennial wild onion. It has a strong garlic-like odor and a pronounced onion flavor. Ramps are found across North America, from the...
(wild leeks), and unimproved roads can be used to access the area from Anjean
Anjean, West Virginia
Anjean is an unincorporated community in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, United States. Anjean is northeast of Rupert....
and Richwood
Richwood, West Virginia
Richwood is a city in Nicholas County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 2,477 at the 2000 census. A former coal and lumber boom town, the city's population once flirted with 10,000 but the closure of many underground coal mines caused many of Richwood's residents to leave the state...
. MeadWestvaco, however, does not tolerate destruction of property or the use of ATVs.
MeadWestvaco began using the "MWV" brand in 2008.
Environmental Record
In 2002, researchers at the University of Massachusetts AmherstUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system...
have identified MeadWestvaco as the 57th-largest corporate producer of air pollution
Air pollution
Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or cause damage to the natural environment or built environment, into the atmosphere....
in the United States, with roughly 35,000 pounds of toxic chemicals released annually into the air. Major pollutants indicated by the study include sulfuric acid
Sulfuric acid
Sulfuric acid is a strong mineral acid with the molecular formula . Its historical name is oil of vitriol. Pure sulfuric acid is a highly corrosive, colorless, viscous liquid. The salts of sulfuric acid are called sulfates...
, chlorine dioxide
Chlorine dioxide
Chlorine dioxide is a chemical compound with the formula ClO2. This yellowish-green gas crystallizes as bright orange crystals at −59 °C. As one of several oxides of chlorine, it is a potent and useful oxidizing agent used in water treatment and in bleaching....
, chlorine
Chlorine
Chlorine is the chemical element with atomic number 17 and symbol Cl. It is the second lightest halogen, found in the periodic table in group 17. The element forms diatomic molecules under standard conditions, called dichlorine...
, and methyl iodide.
MWV has taken steps to improve its environmental impact by upholding both mandated and voluntary performance standards. Since 2005, it has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, a system that tracks the financial performance of leading sustainability-driven companies worldwide. MWV meets the carbon reduction targets of the Chicago Climate Exchange
Chicago Climate Exchange
The now defunct Chicago Climate Exchange was North America’s only voluntary, legally binding greenhouse gas reduction and trading system for emission sources and offset projects in North America and Brazil....
(CCX), the world's first and North America's only legally binding rules-based greenhouse gas emissions allowance trading system. It also holds leadership positions in and actively supports Sustainable Packaging Coalition, Cerflor, CCX, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Abundant Forests Alliance, Duke University Climate Chance Policy Partnership and Sustainable Forestry Initiative
Sustainable Forestry Initiative
The Sustainable Forestry Initiative is a 'forest certification standard' and program of SFI Inc., a non-profit organization. The Sustainable Forestry Initiative is the world’s largest single forest certification standard by area....
.
MeadWestvaco Foundation
In 2002, MeadWestvaco established the MeadWestvaco Foundation as a vehicle to appropriately give back to the communities in which its employees live and work. The Foundation works closely with local MWV business unit managers to determine the goals, priorities, and strategies best for each location.The Foundation’s 2007 contributions totaled roughly $3.7million. Funds were allocated to the following categories: United Way, education, environment, health & human services, culture & art, and civic organizations. MWV employees, families, and friends also contributed over 46,000 volunteer hours to schools, charitable organizations, and public institutions.
External links
- Company website
- Yahoo.com company profile
- Hoovers Report
- History of Westvaco
- Inventory of the Westvaco Corporation Records, 1902 - 2000 in the Forest History SocietyForest History SocietyThe Forest History Society is an American non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of forest and conservation history. The society was established in 1946 and incorporated in 1955....
Library and Archives, Durham, NC - Inventory of the Oxford Paper Company Records, 1915 - 1983 in the Forest History SocietyForest History SocietyThe Forest History Society is an American non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of forest and conservation history. The society was established in 1946 and incorporated in 1955....
Library and Archives, Durham, NC - Inventory of the Douglas Crutchfield Papers, 1972 - 1992 in the Forest History SocietyForest History SocietyThe Forest History Society is an American non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of forest and conservation history. The society was established in 1946 and incorporated in 1955....
Library and Archives, Durham, NC - Hilroy.ca