 Press
Release on 07/03/2001: The HINDU BUSINESS LINE
Holostik hopes to make a mark in hologram market
P.T.
Jyothi Datta
NEW DELHI, March 6
As
companies realise that the world is their oyster, come April 1,
2001, quality assurances would become increasingly significant
to stay globally competitive
And
here in hangs the tale of the hologram, increasingly used by
both public and private enterprises to protect their brand by
certifying quality.
Only
recently, Holostik India Ltd (HIL), the eight year old
subsidiary of the city-based Ukay group, bagged an order to
supply 12-crore holograms per month to the Uttar Pradesh Excise
Department.
Mr
Satyadeep Ray, HIL’s General Manager-Marketing, told Business
Line that the project , worth more than Rs 10 crore, involved
supplying holograms for liquor bottles and pouches to avoid the
sale of spurious products.
Earlier,
HIL had successfully bagged two similar projects, worth about Rs
6 crore, from the Tamil Nadu Excise Department.
With
an expected turnover of Rs 17 crore in the current fiscal, HIL
targets about Rs 40 crore in the
next fiscal, buoyed by a quantum jump in the number of
orders per year, from 117 last year to about 300 this year.
On
why the hologram will not lose out to the barcode, in ensuring
genuineness and security of the product, he said: “The
hologram is easily identifiable by the consumer and is difficult
to duplicate. It is virtually impossible to copy as the optical
security device is in the form of a three dimensional impression
and display seven colours of the spectrum.”
Mr
Ray estimates the market for holograms to be about Rs 100 crore
and growing, what with companies looking to battle spurious
products, besides becoming globally competitive.
“Our
existing projects span making holograms for identity cards used
in the Lok Sabha, Raiya Sabha, for the special protection Group
and Bhabha Atomic Research Center to holograms for products such
as Reynolds pens and garments. Dabur had used holograms for some
of its products that were being exported. And now, Archies is
planning to use the same for its gifts.”
Mr
Manish Gangwani, Manager-Gifts, Archies Greetings and Gifts Ltd,
pointed out that the company was planning to have holograms on
its gift items to ensure quality.
“We
want to make sure that the products don’t go directly from the
supplier to the customer. Our Quality Checks and branding come
in between.”
Meanwhile,
company officials observed that there still remained untapped
markets in segments such as garments, banking (where holograms
are used on the cheques / drafts), agriculture (on seeds and
similar products) and even in currency, to prevents
counterfeits.”
...TOP
Press
Release on 05/02/2005: TIMES OF INDIA, DELHI EDITION
Delhi high on
scotch, revenues soar 17 times
By
Himanshu Dhawan/TNN
New Delhi : Delhi
seems to be smacking its lips for foreign firewater. Two months
after foreign liquor labels were introduced in the capital,
demand has skyrocketed. In fact, the excise department’s
revenue has increased 17 times in just two months.
Foreign
liquor was introduced in November-end, in time for the city’s
wedding - cocktail season. The excise department has sold 5006
bottles of Black Label. Of this 1934 bottles were sold to
hotels, restaurants and clubs, whiles the rest were sold through
vends. Similarly, 4002 Red Label bottles were sold as were 1490
bottles of Chivas Regal.
This
has led to a dramatic increase in revenue. Officials said that
revenue collection in November-December 2004 was Rs 17 lakh, or
17 times the collection during the corresponding period of the
previous year. “This dramatic increase is mainly because of
the introduction of foreign brands and the number of vends,”
said an excise official. Just last week’s collections have
been Rs 16 lakh as compared to Rs 1 lakh earned by the
department for the same period in 2003.
...TOP
Press
Release on 05/02/2005: TIMES OF INDIA, DELHI EDITION
The big fight for
product protection & security
Everyday
there are numerous cases of spurious drugs, counterfeit currency
and fake stamp papers in circulation throughout the country making
the state exchequer poorer by thousand of crores and endangering
the lives of consumers. All this can be controlled with the help
of holograms, which are a sure shot way to fight fake product and
are being used throughout the Europe and the US. However, our
country still doesn’t recognize holograms as an industry and
prefers the consumers to be fed with spurious drugs day by day
costing thousands of precious lives and loss of crores in revenue.
A
product of the sophisticated technology known as “laser
optics”, the security hologram
has been found to be most effective fraud preventive
optical security device, The world over, security holograms are
extensively used for document authentication. It helps in
protecting the authenticity of the originals of important,
sensitive and valuable document against the threat of counterfeit
and forged documents and help in brand promotion and brand image
enhancement.
Being
a three – dimensional impression and virtually impossible to
replicate, a security hologram is an inimitable symbol of
genuineness and has extra-ordinary visual appeal. Also it is
impossible to make an exact replica of the hologram and therefore
it is regarded as virtually impossible to copy.
Holographic
images created by unique optical interference patterns generated
by high power lasers have long been acknowledged as an effective
means of deterring counterfeiters, Their particular strengths lie
in their ability to be visually verified with resistance to color
copying and scanning providing a very secure mark of authenticity.
Advances in origination techniques have allowed the incorporation
of a wide range of security features with increasing clarity and
definition of the image distinguishing those designed for secure
applications.
The
range includes microtext, with the use of small text
distinguishable only under a magnifying glass, and dual channel
techniques which allow a second holographic image to appear on
tilting the main image vertically, as well as the use of computer
in the assistance of complex design configurations.
Umendra
Kumar Gupta, CMD, Holostik India Ltd., says ”Holostik India
Limited played a pioneering role
in the introduction and popularization of security holograms in
India. Today Holostik India is an ISO 9001:2000 company and has
emerged as the premier holographer of the nation. Amongst all the
units in the India holography industry, Holostik India is the
undisputed Market leader having the largest number of customer and
enjoys the highest share i.e. approx. 55% of the market for
security holograms in India. Holostik India Limited is growing at
a good and high rate every year. The founder member of HOMAI,
Holostik is also a full member of the International Hologram
manufacturer’s Association, And we at Holostik India make use of
a variety of master origination
techniques to create holograms incorporating security
feature to suit the specific needs of individual clients. Today we
are one the very few in the world who can originate very high
security masters in 12000 dpi because of our recent investment in
the latest technology in master origination”.
Satyadeep
Ray, Director, Marketing, Holostik India Ltd, says “The demand
for temper evident materials has increased and is no longer
restricted to the protection of items such as pharmaceuticals,
foods, wines and spirits for which the risk of malicious tampering
is a constant threat, Consequently a huge potential exists for a
diverse range of new and existing security labels for protection
in such areas as warranty validation. The importance of using
genuine components to ensure against insurance invalidation for
motor vehicles is a further area requiring protection and
companies can ensure authenticity by applying holographic labels
to their products.”
Over
recent years more specialist converters of security and so-called
intelligent labels have emerged, working in several clearly
demarcated markets. The use of specially formulated inks and
lacquers together with the use of security papers incorporating
watermark, fluorescent fibers and threads has provided a further
range of option. The ability to combine key elements of paper
production, holograms and security printing in a single effective
solution to combat product and brand counterfeiting is essential
in maintaining a position at the forefront of anti counterfeit
technology.
Umendra
Kumar Gupta, CMD, Holostik India Ltd. adds, “holograms can be
used on identify cards, passports, visas, drivers licenses bonds
and share certificates, travelers cheques, gift, certificates,
stamp papers, postal stamps currency notes, etc, to prevent their
duplication. However the government is very reluctant on its use.
First thing we a part of the holographic industry want that the
government must give it a status of security press and must
recognise as an industry. We also want the government to include
holography as a separate import- export item. Until this is
achieved, it would be very difficult to fight the growing menace
of take products flooding our markets”
Umendra
Kumar Gupta explaining about tampering with holograms says,
“holographic tamer-evident labels are available in various forms
including those where transfer of the image from label substrate
occurs upon attempted removal. In some case the holographic image
is destroyed, clearly indicating tampering, whilst in others a
patterned removal of the image makes reassembly difficult. The
combination of these techniques produces a patterned destruction
of the image providing an instantly obvious indication of
tempering. These labels are produced by the inclusion of a
security release layer allowing selective separation within the
label structure to occur when the label is lifted.”
Customization
of the tamper pattern contained within the security release layer
is offered by some specialist suppliers allowing the incorporation
of company loges or product – specific designs, thereby
providing additional security at very little extra cost.
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