MORE IMPACT
MeadWestvaco packaging center finds a new home
It’s the potential for partnership that led MeadWestvaco to choose Raleigh and NC State University’s Centennial Campus for its Center for Packaging Innovation. The center houses research and development, emerging packaging technologies, material sciences, marketing and business development activities, best practices, and other packaging innovation resources for MeadWestvaco, a $6 billion global company.
The approach is to work extensively and cooperatively with customers to understand packaging needs and to develop customized solutions that are valuable in the marketplace – both here and abroad. For example, MeadWestvaco developed “value-added” beverage packaging that won’t fall apart when wet.
Soon after arriving at NC State, MeadWestvaco’s president was convinced the company had made the right move. Faculty and students from various disciplines and colleges have helped the company “do better work on the front end of innovation,” he said. “There is no better place for us to be. A lot of universities talk innovation and economic development. NC State practices it. We’ve gotten a lot of support from across the campus. Clearly, we’ve created a new business model through (this) partnership.”
Like innovative packaging, the MeadWestvaco-NC State partnership won’t fall apart.