Bangalore-based Essae Technologys Private Limited, a division of the Essae Group, is all set to capture a major share in the bar code technology market in the pharmaceutical sector. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Commerce has already made bar code mandatory for all manufacturing industries from April 1, 2001.

The pharmaceutical industry is looking for accuracy right from raw materials receipt to despatch of final product. The bar code implementation is the only answer for this according to Narasimha Subramanian, managing director, Essae Technologys Private Limited.

The Rs. 5 crore Essae Technologys, which is growing at the rate 150 percent per annum, is looking at the pharmaceutical segment in a big way, as bar code is crucial for its activities.

"The concept of bar coding is fast catching up in the pharmaceutical sector as companies following GMP [good manufacturing practices] are looking for error proof methods in production and packaging. This automatic identification technology is adopted because of speed and accuracy and a method to cut cost of entry data," informs Subramanian.

From Bangalore the company has installed bar code technology for Cipla and Strides Arcolabs Limited and is in the process of finalising the contract with several big names in the pharmaceutical sector.

The bar code technology was popular abroad in 60s but the import tariff was very high and it was only in the early 90s it caught on in India slash in import duty.

Today Essae Technologys share of business in bar code from the pharmaceutical sector is between 5 to 7 percent. But Subramanian is of the view that market for bar codes in the pharmaceutical sector is growing. The bar coding requirement in the pharmaceutical sector is totally different as there is the need for coloured labels to indicate the various stages of production and packaging. Giving an example, Subramanian states, "Red refers to rejection, green indicates acceptance and there is also another colour denoting 'under test'."

The other clients for Essae for bar codes are manufacturing industries and the competition is high. In South, Essae Technologys is competing with Intelecon and the Great Eastern Impex apart from the presence of many other players.

Although bar code technology was introduced in 1994 by Essae Teraoka. In 1998, Essae Group spun off a new division Essae Technologys to focus on automatic identification solutions (Auto ID) apart from complete range of Auto ID products including barcode printers, scanners, hand held terminals, software and consumables. The company has offices in Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Madurai, Coimbatore, Trichy and Kochi.

The Essae Group incorporated in 1965, has nine companies under its purview and the Group's activities include manufacturing and marketing of electronic weighting scales and systems, electronic truck scales, electronic cash registers, and health care products.