More Good Numbers for RFID

Smartrac reports a healthy increase in sales.
Published: November 9, 2012

I recently wrote about Avery Dennison and Checkpoint Systems reporting strong financials (see RFID Adding to Some Bottom Lines). Now, Smartrac, a manufacturer of high-frequency (HF) and ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification transponders, has reported a 36 percent increase in revenue for the first nine months of 2012.

Total revenue for the first three quarters of the year was €189 million ($240 million), up from €139 million ($178 million) during the first three quarters of 2011. Sales in the third quarter of 2012 exceeded €70 million ($89 million)—the first time that Smartrac has achieved sales that high during a single quarter.

A prepared statement announcing the results says: “The Smartrac management expects that the overall positive market trend in the RFID industry will continue over the last quarter of 2012 and that Smartrac will add another successful year of growth to its company history. Therefore, Smartrac confirms its target to increase Group sales to more than EUR 250 million in 2012.”

The firm announced, at the end of last year, that it would acquire UPM RFID, a division of Finnish wood pulp, paper and timber provider UPM-Kymmene Corp. Smartrac planned to leverage the passive UHF technology company’s manufacturing capabilities to position itself as one of the world’s largest providers of UHF RFID inlays (see Smartrac Acquires UPM RFID, Becoming a UHF Tag Leader). It would appear that it is executing well on that strategy.

Mark Roberti is the founder and editor of RFID Journal. If you would like to comment on this article, click on the link below. To read more of Mark’s opinions, visit the RFID Journal Blog, the Editor’s Note archive or RFID Connect.