MeadWestvaco Corporation (MWV) recently opened its state-of-the-art pilot plant in Henrico County, Va., last week. The plant is part of MWV’s Center for Packaging Innovation, which the company moved to its corporate headquarters in Richmond, Va., from Raleigh, N.C. in 2010.

MWV’s Center for Packaging Innovation develops and tests new products and technologies as part of the company’s effort to find creative packaging solutions for customers across the globe. The 48,000-square-foot plant will allow the company to increase its pre-commercialization product testing. 

With five new labs MWV’s capabilities include wood fiber development, polymer compounding, metallurgy and corrosion analysis, coatings and materials testing, form/fill/seal machines, die-cutting, distribution and supply chain testing, equipment prototyping, injection molding and multi-layer extrusion and lamination, to name just a few.

The pilot plant is the latest in a series of investments this Fortune 500 company has made in the Commonwealth. MWV invested $80 million to move its corporate headquarters from Connecticut to Richmond, Va., in 2006, creating 400 new jobs. The company also announced an investment of $285 million in June 2011 to construct a new, state-of-the-art biomass boiler at its Covington Mill in Alleghany County, Va.  MWV has been a Covington employer since 1899.

These investments illustrate MWV’s confidence in Virginia’s talent and infrastructure to support innovative projects across the Commonwealth. According to MWV Chairman and CEO John A. Luke, Jr., “Virginia is not only our corporate home; it is a major base of operations and gateway for our business around the world.”

To learn why companies continue to invest in the Commonwealth and locate their headquarters in Virginia’s pro-business environment, click here.