MADISON, WI (October 30, 2012) – Placon, a leading US thermoformer of custom and stock retail and food, medical packaging products as well as recycled PET materials, unveiled its new corporate rebranding effort for its medical division at Pack Expo 2012. Effective immediately, all Placon medical will be marketed under the Barger™ (formerly referred to as Barger Packaging, Inc.) name.

“Updating the logo has been a significant and integral part of our overall branding strategy,” stated Scott Duehmig, General Manager, Barger. “The new Barger identity not only helps unify the medical teams in both Madison and Elkhart within Placon, but more importantly, it provides clarity to our customers and prospects that our Barger medical division has two strong platforms located in two facilities under the Placon foundation. It also works to subtly convey what our brand stands for: ingenuity, integrity and strong customer relationships.”

The rebranding effort emphasizes Placon’s commitment to fully integrate its medical division with locations in Madison, WI and Elkhart, IN under one brand. The decision to place the medical division under the Barger name was based on Barger’s history and reputation in the medical device and pharmaceutical packaging market. Placon didn’t want to lose the brand equity that Barger had built over time, while at the same time, wanted to ensure that Placon’s own brand equity and reputation in thermoform design and manufacturing wasn’t disregarded.

The unveiled unified brand strategy can be clearly seen in the new logo mark on display at Placon’s Pack Expo Booth. Designed in Placon Blue, the logo features a stylized “B” formed with a plus symbol synonymous with the medical field. The plus sign also portrays Placon’s idea of 1 + 1 = 3 illustrating the combined strength in the medical division’s capabilities.

To further tie in Placon with the Barger brand, an “identifier”, namely “Placon’s Medical Specialists” was added to the logo design. States Laura Stewart, VP Sales and Marketing Placon, “The final design communicates to customers and prospects that we are one company and underscores our commitment and concentration to the medical industry with Barger being 100% medical-focused.”

A planned redesign of the website integrating the new logo design will occur in 2013. Since the acquisition, Placon has invested over $1mm at the Elkhart location in infrastructure improvements, software upgrades and new equipment. States Duehmig, “We believe this new identity coupled with our new breadth and depth of services will position Barger for continued future success after more than 40 years of providing innovative packaging systems to the medical device and pharmaceutical markets.”

ABOUT PLACON
For over 45 years Placon has been a leading designer and manufacturer of custom and stock thermoformed packaging products as well as eco-friendly flake and roll stock materials for the retail, food and medical markets. Continuously setting the bar in thermoform packaging and environmentally conscious material solutions, Placon provides innovative, high quality and safe thermoformed packaging products that harness the power of tomorrow’s technology and design to solve customers’ challenges today.

ABOUT BARGER
With over 250+ combined years of medical packaging design and thermoforming experience, Barger provides complete sterile and non-sterile packaging systems ensuring fit and function of all components. Barger offers single source packaging solutions from thermoforming, protective packaging products including BargerGard®, lid conversion (Tyvek® and foil) and cartons. Barger is ISO 9001 certified and operates class 8 clean rooms at its Elkhart, IN and Madison, WI facilities. With the acquisition by Placon Corporation in 2011, Barger is noted as being one of the top 3 medical thermoformers in the US.

ABOUT PLACON
For 55 years, Placon has been a leading designer and manufacturer of custom and stock plastic packaging for the food, medical, and retail markets. Placon has manufacturing operations in Madison, WI; Elkhart, IN; Plymouth, MN; and West Springfield, MA, and currently ranked in Plastics News 2020 Thermoformers Ranking Top 20. Placon delivers packaging breakthroughs that inspire better engagement between people and products with industry leading innovation and award-winning packaging designs. For more information, visit www.placon.com.