News

MeadWestvaco, the US-based group, will focus on specialist DVD and compliance pharmaceutical packs to counter falling CD packaging sales in its consumer solutions division.

Growth in this area will also be driven by last year’s purchase of Calmar, a supplier of plastic dispensing and spraying systems for the personal care, healthcare, fragrance, and lawn and garden markets.

The Virginia-based group made the comments after revealing that operating profits in the consumer solutions division fell by almost 25% in the fourth quarter of 2006.

The firm blamed the “lion’s share of the decline” on falling demand for music CD packaging as consumers move to internet downloads, and on a failure to win contracts for DVD packaging for “blockbuster” movies.

This has led to it announcing the closure of four facilities, two in Europe (Packaging News, January 2007), including its Birmingham site, and two in the US (Packaging News, February 2007).

Divisional sales for the full year were up 8% to £1.1bn, but operating profit fell 9% to £48m.

Meanwhile, the firm’s largest division, packaging resources, which produces board, came close to doubling its operating profits in the fourth quarter.


MeadWestvaco Q4 results
Consumer solutions
Operating profit £17m (-25%)
Turnover £320m (+15%)

Packaging resources
Operating profit £34m (+100%)
Turnover £373m (+4%)