Seven-figure unit order for NFC OpenSense
Thin Film Electronics ASA (OSLO:THIN) has signed its first commercial order for its OpenSense product, only five months after the product launch in February of this year. The order was placed by product authentication company G World Group, which will be unveiling a ‘smart wine bottle’ at Mobile World Congress Shanghai over the course of this week. It will then be trialled in collaboration with Ferngrove Wines, which is a Chinese-owned, Australian wine producer that exports over 600,000 bottles of wine to China each year. The initial order is for a seven-figure quantity, although we expect this could be significantly extended if the field trial is successful.
Substantial opportunity in China
Counterfeiting wine is a substantial problem in China. A study by Wine Intelligence in 2012 found that an empty Lafite wine bottle can be sold for up to £200 for the purpose of refilling with fake wine. Lafite currently uses a unique alpha-numeric code on the cap of each label for consumers to check authenticity, but this can be cumbersome for the end-consumer to check and is likely to be easier for counterfeiters to copy than Thinfilm’s OpenSense labels. Wine Intelligence also found that authenticity concerns are a significant barrier to purchase, with 44% of respondents in their survey saying it discouraged them from buying wine. There is therefore clearly a substantial demand for effective anti-counterfeiting technology, and if this field trial proves successful it could open the door to rapid growth in the substantial wine authentication market.
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