MeadWestvaco Consumer Packaging Group LLC history

Born into a Scottish papermaking family, Westvaco founder William Luke came to the United States in 1852.

In 1856 Me ad bought out his original partners with a friend from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, forming Weston and Mead.

1889: William Luke establishes the Piedmont Pulp and Paper Com pany.

He immediately upgraded the Dayton mill and in 1890 purchased a facility in nearby Chillicothe, Ohio.

The Piedmont plant employed 60, and by 1891 it began production of printing paper under the name West Virginia Paper.

In 1897 West Virginia Paper merged with West Virginia Pulp Company of Davis, West Virginia and became West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company (WVPP). It expanded along with the United States's growing demand, and it established a business headquarters in New York City.

George Mead had been reducing the number of different types of paper made at Mead since his entry in 1905, when the company produced 15 different grades of paper.

Mead Pulp and Paper made its first public stock offering in 1906.

Used in United States packaging since 1907, kraft paper replaced many wood and textile shipping containers.

William Luke died in 1912, at which time the company had four mills operating in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and New York.

Federally approved for shipping in 1914, use of this material grew tremendously during the world wars.

Toward this end, in 1917 Mead secured a five-year contract to produce magazine paper for Crowell Publishing Company.

In 1918 the Management Engineering and Development Company was establ ished in Dayton as a separate firm to supervise engineering of new Me ad plants and to market Mead's engineering services to other paper co mpanies.

In 1920 Mead bought out the other owners of Kingsport Pulp.

While white paper production volume remained relatively constant, diversification accounted for virtually all growth after World War I. The company produced its first kraft paper in 1921, the first year of David Luke's tenure as president.

The plant began white paper production in 1923 and became a central Mead facto ry.

By 1925 Mead research led to the disco very of the semi-chemical pulping process by which wood chips from wh ich tannin had been extracted could be converted into paperboard.

In 1929 WVPP introduced containerboard, a heavier, corrugated paper used for boxes.

The Mead Corporation was incorporated on February 17, 1930, and Georg e Mead was appointed president.

Two major purchases were Dill & Collins in 1932 and Ge o.

Another son of William Luke, Thomas Luke, became president in 1934, inheriting a company with young diversification attempts and old mills.

By 1937 the Brunswick mill was producing 150 tons of pulp per da y.

In 1938 Mead entered two joint ventures in an effort to reduce its de pendence on imported pulp and to enter the kraft linerboard business.

With Scott Paper Company, it formed the Brunswick Pulp & Paper C ompany at Brunswick, Georgia to supply both parent companies. It was widely regarded as the leading li nerboard mill in the country and by 1940 was making $1 million a year before taxes.

Ascending to president in 1945, David L. Luke, a grandson of the founder, established the company's modern growth pattern.

The companies first collaborate d in 1946 to found the Macon Kraft Company to build and operate a pap erboard mill in Macon, Georgia.

Mead saw a rapid succession of presidents after Fergusen, who in 1948 became chairman of the board and handed the presidency on to Charles R. Van de Carr, Jr.

WVPP purchased a Brazilian paper box maker in 1953.

Demand for white printing papers began its first large increase in decades in 1954 as a population boom and renewed prosperity increased consumption of printed materials.

In 1955 WVPP purchased color presses to produce paperboard finished to client specifications.

WVPP's earnings increased out of proportion to sales, peaking at $16.3 million in 1956 after five successive years of gains.

In 1957 West Virginia purchased Virginia Folding Box Company, an assembler of cigarette packaging.

By 1959 WVPP completed its largest spending program, doubling capacity at the Luke mill; but when domestic growth slowed, prices collapsed.

By 1960 the demand for office and printing papers (at one time WVPP's primary product) provided growth to the long-stagnant industry.

Research and development spending quadrupled during the ten-year period, ending 1961 at $4 million annually.

The timing of the expansion speeded WVPP's recovery; by 1962 demand began to catch up to the capacity added in recent years.

David L. Luke retired in 1963.

WVPP acquired its millionth acre in 1964.

Mead and the FTC settled in 1965 when Mead signed a consent decree, agreeing to sell seven of its plants o ver five years and place a ten-year moratorium on paperboard acquisit ions.

Nearly half of sales in 1967 came from products introduced in the previous ten years.

WVPP purchased C.A. Reed Company in 1968, maker of disposable paper products.

In 1969 the company changed its name to Westvaco Corporation.

Mead agreed in 1970 to sell within two years 22 of t he outlets operated by Chatfield & Woods Company, acquired in 196 1, and Cleveland Paper Company.

In 1971 the Escanaba mill was operating at a loss despi te a $15 million investment in upgrading the plant.

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.

Wage and price controls were lifted altogether in 1974, allowing the industry to pass on production costs.

Mead's corrugated-paper busines s was concentrated in Stevenson, Alabama in 1975.

1977: Franklin Container Corporation of Philadelphia and Tim-B ar Corporation file a $1.2 billion antitrust suit against Mead an d eight other box makers.

In 1979 Mead ranked fourth among forest products companies and hit it s all-time earnings peak of $5.19 a share while fending off an un wanted takeover by Occidental Petroleum Corporation.

Finally, Mead also settled out of court in 1982 for $45 million, considerably less than it might have had to pay in court, but still f ive times more than any of the other defendants paid.

Business improved in 1984, as Mead's electronic information-retrieval services became profitable.

In 1988 LEXIS was responsible for MDC's 33 perc ent growth.

Development of this product was costly, and it diminished Mead's earnings from 1 986 to 1990.

In 1991, Mead completed a $580 millio n expansion of this mill, which added 370,000 tons of coated board an nually.

After ten years as chairman a nd CEO, Burnell Roberts retired in 1992 and was replaced by Steven Ma son, who had been president and vice-chairman.

Ti libra S.A. Productos de Papelaria, an office products manufacturer ba sed in Brazil, was acquired in 2004.

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.

MeadWestvaco began using the “MWV” brand in 2008.

In February 2011, MeadWestvaco sold its Envelope Products Business including the Columbian Brand Envelope to Cenveo Corporation’s Quality Park Envelope Products Group.