MeadWestvaco Inc., a maker of packaging, office products and school supplies, plans to cut about 70 jobs at its Garden Grove plant.
The Stamford, Conn.-based company is moving manufacturing to Virginia as part of a $50 million cost-cutting effort that began more than a year ago.
“The reduction in work force will allow the company to better align its manufacturing capacity with market demand and help enhance our position in a competitive marketplace,” spokeswoman Alison von Puschendorf said.
Manufacturing is set to move to MeadWestvaco’s Alexandria site.
The company also said it plans to move its headquarters to Richmond.
The Garden Grove plant, which employs 116 workers in all, makes school and office supplies including wire-bound notebooks, filler paper and envelopes.
MeadWestvaco is set to continue making and distributing envelopes at the Garden Grove facility.
The company’s consumer and office products division reported third-quarter revenue of $794 million.
MeadWestvaco has operations in some 29 countries.
Workers now are in talks with management about the timing of the layoffs, von Puschendorf said.
“The company is offering transitional assistance to all affected employees,” she said.
The 218,000-square-foot plant opened in 1962 and was owned by Western Tablet & Stationery Corp.
Mead Corp., which bought New York-based Westvaco Corp. in 2002, acquired papermaker Western Tablet & Stationery in 1966.
About 100,000 square feet of the Garden Grove space is dedicated to manufacturing. Some 118,000 square feet is warehouse space.
There are no plans to sell or close the plant, von Puschendorf said.
Other Closures
MeadWestvaco shuttered a plant in Buena Park in 2004.
About 135 workers lost their jobs in that plant’s closure.
Denver-based ProLogis bought the 238,000-square-foot building for about $20 million.
MeadWestvaco also closed its Fullerton-based Day Runner Inc. unit in early 2004, cutting about 130 jobs.
The closure of the Day Runner operation came a few months after MeadWestvaco bought the calendar maker for $43 million. n
