Paper products maker Mead Corp. last week said it plans to expand its Mead Consumer & Office Products plant and distribution facility in Garden Grove after announcing it was shuttering a similar facility in Atlanta.
Dayton, Ohio-based Mead currently counts 125 people in Garden Grove and plans to add an as-yet undetermined number more as it shifts operations from Atlanta to Orange County. The company also is shifting some work done in Atlanta to Alexandra, Pa., and St. Joseph, Mo.
“We expect to add positions (in Garden Grove),” said Mead spokeswoman Amber Garwood. “They’ll be handling an increase in the manufacturing and distribution of our consumer and office products lines.”
Garwood said the company hasn’t yet worked out all the details of the transfer, but that it would begin “immediately,” she said.
The company said the Atlanta closure officially would take place Nov. 5 with most of the plant’s equipment expected to have been moved to the other locations by year-end.
“We’ve scheduled the equipment transfer so that we’ll still meet all customer orders for the 2002 back-to-school season,” Garwood said.
Most of the equipment transferred will be “web-to-finish” production equipment used to make wire-bound notebooks, envelopes and filler paper, she said.
Company officials said the Atlanta closure would result in the loss of 215 jobs.
“Most of the salaried employees will receive severance offerings,” Garwood said. “Some of those may have opportunities to take positions at other Mead facilities.”
The Garden Grove facility spans 218,000 square feet,100,000 square feet for manufacturing and 118,000 square feet of warehouse.
Mead has owned and operated the Garden Grove plant since 1966. The Mead Consumer & Office Products division last year recorded $829 million in revenue and has 3,000 employees throughout North America. Parent Mead counts $4.4 billion in yearly sales.
Last month, Mead announced plans to acquire New York-based Westvaco Corp. The new company, called MeadWestvaco, is set to be based in Stamford, Conn. n
