Friday, August 22, 2008

BARTRONICS EYES BUY IN EUROPE

Rabin Ghosh, Mumbai
DNA

Bartronics India, the country’s largest smart-card manufacturer and automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) company, is incubating several new products and services ideas that could become growth drivers for the future, a senior company official said on Tuesday.

The company is also looking to expand its geographical spread into Europe through an acquisition.

Sudhir Rao, managing director of Bartronics, said the company is exploring several new segments like tracking applications and point of sales (PoS) products. “These are currently in the lab stage and could find commercial application in the future,” he added.

Rao said, with technology becoming affordable, tracking of goods and people is likely to be a big business opportunity. The company is investing in GIS and GPRS technology to fine-tune these applications.

For retail PoS products, it has tied up with chip major Intel to use the latter’s architecture in the products.

Rao said the PoS products are ready and are undergoing field tests. These are a fifth cheaper than similar products from competitors and are also more complex and versatile. The company plans to get these products contract manufactured and would not set up its own facility.

Rao said the company is looking to enter Europe this year through an acquisition. “We have identified three firms in the RFID (radio frequency identification) space in the $50-100 million valuation range. They have a customer base and are profit making,” he said.

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