Becoming Minnesotan

PlastiCert coworkers are, for the most part. Minnesotans. We have at least one transplanted Wisconsinite. They share many of the same “Minnesota Nice” type traits, (although they continue to obsess and display their affection for the Packers and Bucky Badger). That being said, PlastiCert itself, up until recently, had always been a Pennsylvania corporation.

If you are familiar with the story of PlastiCert, our founder, a native North Dakotan, was residing in Pennsylvania after traveling the world, opening injection molding plants for his employer. So when he branched out on his own, he started right there in PA. It was his family roots in the Midwest that led to PlastiCert learning of and acquiring the operation that would eventually become the Minnesota PlastiCert plant. The Minnesota plant annually filed in Minnesota as a “foreign” corporation.

We operated for years from the two different plants with little overlap in customers and production type. PA specialized in higher volumes and very small parts. MN exceled at larger parts and their accompanying smaller volumes. Hence, when the offshoring phenomenon took off, PlastiCert PA was the plant that took the biggest hit. Eventually, PA was shuttered during the depression in 2009.

Since then, whenever we fill out paperwork like an NDA, we’ve had to type, “PlastiCert, a Pennsylvania corporation”, in the document. It started to poke at us a little, as alliterated earlier, we are predominantly Minnesotan. Like all Minnesotans, we are proud of our storied demeanor, our weather hardiness, sense of fair play and general good nature. We felt representations of us should reflect that heritage.

So with just a Minnesota presence now, we decided to seek out the legal assistance necessary to change our state of incorporation from Pennsylvania to Minnesota. Turns out not every corporate law firm has performed this process. It took some asking around to find a firm that could do it, eventually finding a firm 40 miles away. After 3 months, a number of documents in multiple states, and some identification shifting, PlastiCert is now a Minnesota cooperation.  We’re thinking of throwing a lunch celebration, complete with assorted hot dishes, lefse, wild rice soup and of course, Bloedow’s pastries! (look it up). At least now, when we fill out an NDA, we can type, “PlastiCert, a Minnesota corporation” and smile while we are doing it.