TricorBraun Design and Engineering, the Oak Brook, Ill., supplier of rigid packaging and components to food and beverage processors, changed its name to TricorBraun Design and Innovation. And, for good reason.

“Throughout the organization, innovation is a priority. Whether it is administration, operations, sales or design, we are constantly looking for newer, better, more efficient and creative ways to do things. Perhaps the most visible area of innovation is in our design group. With this in mind, we have changed the name to TricorBraun Design and Innovation,” says Keith Strope, chief executive officer.

The Design and Innovation group provides services without charge to businesses that purchase bottles, jars and other rigid packaging components from TricorBraun, its parent company. The expanded staff includes industrial designers, engineers and graphic designers. Now housed in a new, larger facility in Chicago, Design and Innovation also expanded its services to include an on-site focus group facility on site for conducting consumer research. The video conferencing system allows customer and manufacturers to become more directly involved in the creative process, increasing the speed to market. The upgrade also includes enhancements to software and hardware to include state-of-the-art modeling capabilities.

“Adding innovation to our name emphasizes our broadened capacity to quickly address the new challenges facing the packaging industry, including sustainability, new materials and technological advancement. It also embraces our commitment to increase speed to market,” says Craig Sawicki, chief creative officer.