Essae Technologys Private Limited, a bar code technology major has unveiled its plans to introduce RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) system. The company, which built a solid business foundation with pharmaceutical companies for bar code technology, will now offer RFID, a superior wireless identification code system.
The bar code technology market is showing a trend towards RFID, which is a wireless automatic identification code system effective in manufacturing systems because of its ability to track moving objects. "Essae is positioning itself to be a premium solution provider in this area and is already working on the necessary tie ups for the same. The company's future plans will clearly see more investments in time and money into Radio Frequency or Wireless products. These are two areas that are opening up a huge opportunity in India and we would like to scale up for the same," informed Narasimha Subramanian, branch head, Essae Technologys Private Limited.
The company has also made an investment of around Rs 1.5 crore to set up its own label manufacturing facility in Bangalore, which is equipped with machinery for total operations, under one roof. The company is looking at international business only with barcode labels as most of the hardware for bar codes is imported and offers little scope from India.
Essae has been growing at almost 50 per cent over the last three years. It plans to open more offices across India in order to improve its reach and support to the clients. Currently, Essae has 12 offices across the country to provide sales and support to the customers.
It is the pharmaceutical sector, which has taken up bar code technology seriously. Essae has been working with almost all top pharma companies in India implementing various barcode solutions to them. Pharma industries have started implementing barcode technology as part of the GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) for easy identification and traceability.
In the last 18 months, this sector has seen a significant business potential for the company as Essae added on at least 10 pharma customers including Dr. Reddys, Divi Laboratories, Aurobindo Pharma, Matrix Biosciences, Alkali Metals, Gland Pharma, Strides Arcolab, AstraZeneca, Lancet Pharma apart from various units of Cipla like Okasa in Ahmedabad, Mediorals and Medispray in Goa.
The total value of the bar code technology market is pegged at Rs 90 crore and, Essae commands a minimum of 19 per cent market share in India for barcode products. Essae could be in the top 3 or top 5 in the country for this technology which has Intelecon and the Great Eastern Impex apart from the presence of many other players.
The sector is facing stiff competition and the current estimate indicates that there are about 30 companies offering bar code technologies solutions. Essae being one of the early birds in the sector has managed to be in the forefront of bar coding implementations in India for several years. It has a customer base of over 750 and with more than 9,000 printers and 15,000 scanners installed in the market. Not only that the company has the advantage being skilled in integrating across various operating systems/ platforms and having total solutions under one roof including label manufacturing which is done by very few companies in the field, stated Subramanian.