DAYTON, Ohio, Sept. 4 The Mead Corporation today announced plans to close the Mead Consumer & Office Products facility located in Atlanta, Georgia. Mead expects to close the facility on November 5, 2001 and to transfer its production and distribution equipment to other Mead facilities. "Today's challenging business environment requires us to reduce costs to remain competitive,'' said Neil A. McLachlan, president of the Mead Consumer & Office Products division. "Consolidating the Atlanta facility will allow us to continue meeting the needs of our customers while reducing overhead costs at the same time.'' Equipment from Atlanta will be transferred to similar Mead operations in Alexandria, Pennsylvania; Garden Grove, California; and St. Joseph, Missouri. Closing the Atlanta facility will not impact customers as shipments will be assumed by other Mead facilities and the division's sales and marketing organization will be unaffected by the shutdown. The Atlanta facility presently produces a wide variety of paper-based school and office products, including spiral-bound notebooks, envelopes and filler paper. All of these products will continue to be produced by Mead despite the closure and the company's capacity for these products will not be affected. The facility has approximately 215 employees. These employees will receive assistance as part of the transition. Closing the Atlanta facility will result in Mead taking a pretax charge primarily in the second half of 2001 expected to total approximately $7 million. The charge will primarily cover severance-related costs and the cost of transferring equipment. Mead expects the consolidation to have a positive effect on earnings after allowing for the impact of the charge.The Mead Consumer & Office Products division is a producer and distributor of school supplies, time management products such as planners and calendars, home office products and related items. The Mead Corporation, a forest products company with $4.4 billion in annual sales, is one of the leading North American producers of coated paper, coated paperboard and consumer and office products, a world leader in multiple packaging and specialty paper, and a producer of high-quality corrugating medium. In management of the company's more than two million acres of forests, Mead is committed to practicing principled forest stewardship and using resources in a responsible and sustainable manner. For additional information about Mead, visit the company's web site at www.mead.com .