A packer is provided with a continuous flow of side-by-side columns of plastic bottles that move down an inclined ramp and into a load station where groups or slugs of bottles are deposited into trays or cases. An overhead flight bar conveyor provides a gap between each such group and the cases move by line pressure through the load station. Neck ring guides are provided above the flight bar path to control the descent of the bottles into each case. The path of the flight bars assures that each slug or group is closely controlled, initially by the steep entry angle and as a result of the shallow V-shaped path defined by the angularly related linear active runs on the flight bars prior to entry into the load station and by a second active run forming an abrupt V at the entry to the load station and inclined toward the neck ring guides at the same angle defined by the first run.