Datacard Group, the world leader in secure ID and card personalization solutions, recently announced that they will be consolidating the manufacturing and development operations of their St. Louis, Missouri facility into their Minneapolis, Minnesota plant, resulting in the closure of the St. Louis facility. The consolidation will be complete by the end of the company’s current fiscal year, which runs through March 2009. This transfer will include all of Datacard Group’s high speed inkjet and print finishing technologies, including the Datacard^TM MJ7500^TM card personalization system, and the Datacard® Attacher® GV500 and GV300 Print Finishing Systems.

“This consolidation gives us a chance to take all of the best of the St. Louis organization – their responsiveness, their flexibility and their service – and combine it with the proven operational expertise and execution of our Minneapolis plant,” said Jeff Smolinski, Senior Vice President of Operations for Datacard Group.

The transfer will also result in the consolidation of the two locations’ development and engineering operations. The goal will be to better align the company’s multiple technology platforms and to facilitate faster new product development.

“We’re very optimistic about the long term benefits of this consolidation.” Said Smolinski, “This gives us a solid foundation on which we plan to build a delivery, fulfillment and print finishing business that will be well positioned for global growth and expansion.”

Datacard Group offers the world’s best-selling secure ID and card personalization solutions. The company’s portfolio includes systems for high-volume card issuance, card delivery and fulfillment, secure ID issuance and passport production, plus extensive service and supply offerings. Datacard Group serves customers in more than 120 countries (www.datacard.com).