Abbott: How a 125 Year Company Welcomes with Flags

Abbott Laboratories are a signature company of the greater Chicagoland area. When a company is more than 125 years old or when that company is located in over 150 countries globally, you can bet your facilities have assets which date back to its origins. A flagpole display is no different. By the indication on site, the poles look managed. The flagpole has been updated with parts, but not the right parts. So what is the result? What other complications happen to older facilities?


These are Vanguard Cam Cleat Internal Halyard Flagpoles. These poles have a self locking cleat at the bottom inside the pole. The self locking cleat is a great way to get an internal halyard flagpole commercial look without spending on the deluxe winch system. At the Abbott Labs near Lake Park, there are three of these flagpoles (Vanguard Flagpole Series).

Rope is neatly wrapped outside the access doors of each flagpole. With the correct type of rope, built for all-weather, the excess rope could be dropped below the cam action cleat inside the flagpole. This would make it posible to close the access door. Now, the pole is not functioning as it should, does not have the slick internal commercial appearance, and is vulnerable to theft. The other parts looked well managed and the systems at the top of the flagpoles are functioning well. Even with all this maintenance however, there is a much greater problem new flagpole parts can not fix.

When the flagpoles were installed, trees were planted to finish the beauty of the entrance. Since this facility was built, those trees have grown. Now the flags are starting to get snagged on the limbs of the tree. This problem will only get worse over time. Pieces of flag can be seen ripped off the fly ends in this video. A temporary solution would be to trim the trees and get smaller flags. But even that is a temporary solution. Eventually you'll want to move the flagpoles.

When designing an entrance with Flagpoles, keep in mind landscape will always change but flagpoles will remain the same. Position flagpoles so the flags are unobstructed to fly. This will ensure your design has a lasting appearance.

We've talked about how much we love the Abbott Labs custom flag. The logo is both a letter and a graphic. This allows the flag, on a simple white background to speak loudly. On a flag run, we can always count on Abbott to give their people a flag to follow.