Identity, Security, Payments, Biometrics, Smart Cards and Authentication News

Rafsec and Raflatac merge to combine RFID and label expertise

Thursday, January 26, 2006

RF and contactless technology developer UPM Rafsec has merged with label-maker Raflatac to form UPM Raflatac. The combined Finland-based company has 2,300 employees and annual sales of 850 million EUR.


Raflatac and UPM Rafsec merge to form UPM Raflatac Raflatac, one of the world’s leading pressure sensitives suppliers, and UPM Rafsec, the leading manufacturer of RFID tags and inlays have merged to form a new business entity, UPM Raflatac. Following the merger, UPM Raflatac’s product and service offering comprises both pressure sensitive labelstock and RFID.

“The rebranding of Raflatac and UPM Rafsec reflects UPM’s strong commitment to the labelstock and RFID business areas and the combining of UPM Rafsec under the UPM Raflatac brand. UPM Raflatac will be more clearly part of UPM as a whole. The new name enables us to benefit from all the solidity attached to UPM – a name that stands for the world’s leading forest products company,” says Heikki Pikkarainen, President of UPM Raflatac.

According to Heikki Pikkarainen, Raflatac is already a major global player, and bringing in new-generation RFID products under the same roof further strengthens the prospects for global growth.

“Customers will now be offered an increasingly extensive product range under a single brand. UPM Raflatac will continue to supply its customers with the same familiar products and services as formerly provided under the Raflatac and UPM Rafsec brands,” says Pikkarainen.

UPM Raflatac in brief

UPM Raflatac is a world-leading supplier of pressure sensitive labelstock for a wide variety of needs in product and information labelling. In addition, the company is at the global forefront in the development and high-volume production of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and inlays. UPM Raflatac has around 2,300 employees and an annual turnover of approximately EUR 850 million. The company has a global service network consisting of 11 factories on five continents and a broad network of terminals and sales offices worldwide. UPM Raflatac is part of UPM, a leading global forest products company with annual sales of EUR 10 billion and stocks listed on the Helsinki and New York stock exchanges. [end] 

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Under the partnership, SITA, who has customers in more than 200 countries which includes 300 airport locations, would be able to offer its customers AOptix solutions. These offerings include the InSight iris and face recognition product as an automated solution for airports to quickly and securely identify passengers at security checkpoints with documents such as biometric-enabled passports.

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FIME is joining forces with Thales IT Security Evaluation Facility (ITSEF), a provider of information systems and secure communication in defense, security and transportation markets, to provide a new testing and certification service.

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SML Group Ltd announced the launch of its new “ViziT” RFID item visibility solutions for the retail apparel and item tracking applications.

The ViziT solutions include a range of RFID/EAS enabled paper and woven labels, as well as tickets and sticker that can be attached to garments and stacked items. Using the SML ViziT IT cloud based data management software also provides for semi automated inventory control, as well as improved loss prevention by triggering alarms and item identification at the store exit.

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Proxama has announced a partnership with semiconductor supplier ARM Holdings to create secure payment mechanisms for mobile handsets.

The UK-based partners say they will combine ARM’s TrustZone technology with Proxama’s Mobile Wallet to develop a “highly secure” environment for NFC-enabled mobile contactless payments and mobile internet payments.

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SICK Group, a producer of sensors and sensor solutions for industrial applications, announced a range of new RFID readers and labels designed for identification in the automotive industry.

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