MWV lowers F&B profit expectations after maintenance issues

MeadWestvaco (MWV) Corporation has dropped the profit it expects from its Food and Beverage segment to between $45m-$50m after unanticipated costs and lower productivity.

The costs and productivity are associated with a planned major maintenance outage and subsequent start-up issues at the Covington, Virginia, paperboard mill.

Operational impacts related to a new information system at the mill which negatively affected segment profits but start-up issues have now been addressed and the mill is operating at full capacity.

“While we predicted and communicated that the planned Covington outage would impact Food and Beverage segment results, the outage itself was protracted, and after completion we continued to experience unfavorable manufacturing variances,” said John A. Luke, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of MWV.

“The mill is back to running normally and volumes in June are strong. The operational challenges related to the new system are being remediated and are expected to have minimal impact moving forward.”