Press release

Tapì and Thinfilm Announce Strategic Partnership to Enable Smart Closures

0
Sponsored by Businesswire

Tapì Group, the international Group specializing in the design,
production, and distribution of high-end technological closures for the
premium beverage sector, and Thin Film Electronics ASA, the leader in
near field communications (NFC) solutions, have signed a Letter of
Intent for an exclusive joint partnership to combine their
industry-leading innovation capabilities to better serve the needs of
the wine and spirits industry.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190328005236/en/

Tapì, headquartered in Massanzago (PD), Italy, and Thinfilm, based in
San Jose, California, have established a strategic partnership
encompassing development, delivery, and implementation of Thinfilm’s
NFC-enabled solutions. The collaboration will create dependable,
cost-effective closure solutions for brand protection and consumer
engagement purposes.

“This is further confirmation that, here at Tapì, we are capable of
innovating and anticipating trends in our sector. We are excited to
offer cutting-edge IoT technology in the beverage sector, which will
protect and enhance our customers’ products on several fronts.
Counterfeit products not only cause worldwide losses in the sector, but
they are a big health problem,” said Tapì Group Chief Executive Officer
Roberto Casini. “In addition, brands are also now looking for new ways
to interact with their consumers. These cleverly integrated smart
closures can help our customers track and protect their products while
at the same time strengthening their reputations on the market by
increasing engagement with consumers.”

“We are thrilled to be joining Tapì in addressing the rampant worldwide
counterfeiting problem plaguing their spirits customers, as well as
giving brands’ empowered consumers unique and engaging experiences,”
said Kevin Barber, Chief Executive Officer of Thinfilm. “Many brands are
looking for new insights in order to move from indirect, transactional
engagement to direct, long-term relationships with their consumers, as
well as improvements to their packaging that will make the products more
attractive and safer.”

The two companies have begun to develop NFC-enabled OpenSense® closures
so that brands may protect their products, thus assuring their customers
that the contents of the bottle are authentic and safe to consume. The
OpenSense solution detects when a closure seal has been broken and
alerts the consumer that the container or bottle may have been tampered
with. A second closure type, based on the Thinfilm SpeedTap® tag, is
designed to allow brands to open a direct channel to customers for
delivering dynamic, real-time experiences throughout the consumer
journey. The strategic partnership between Tapì and Thinfilm will cover
both tag types and use cases.

Tapì and Thinfilm are working with premium brands to integrate
NFC-integrated closures into their bottling and/or packaging production
lines with minimum disruption and maximum performance.

Today, the total global addressable spirits market is estimated to be 65
billion bottles annually. The companies will release a suite of
integrated smart closures to the premium segment of the spirits market
over the coming months, addressing a broad range of spirits closure
styles and design, aesthetic, and protection requirements.

Tapì and Thinfilm will be exhibiting at the World
Spirits Conference
on Thursday, March 28, 2019 from 8:00am to 4:30pm
at The Honourable Artillery Company, City Road, London.

Tapì Group

Tapì is an international Group specializing in the design, production
and distribution of high-end technological closures for the Premium
beverage sector. Tapì develops products for the spirits, wine, oil and
condiments, cosmetics and beer sectors. With over 500 employees
worldwide, providing support for over 5,000 customers in over 60
countries, Tapì has consolidated its global presence with a series of
production facilities, sales offices, R&D workshops and distributors in
Europe and the Americas.

Tapì vision is clear: to become the world’s leading supplier of closures
for the Premium and Super Premium segments in the beverage market. To
achieve this goal, the company invests continuously in research &
development, in people and in communicating its brand value and
strength, with a view to growing as an international Group.

Thin Film Electronics ASA

Thinfilm is enabling Intelligence Everywhere® through our near field
communications (NFC) solutions. We address customer and consumer pain
points around brand protection, consumer engagement and supply-chain
insights. Thinfilm’s NFC OpenSense® and SpeedTap® products communicate
wirelessly with NFC-enabled smartphones and can be applied to everyday
objects. Thinfilm provides fully integrated services throughout the
entire process incorporating NFC tags, integrating them onto products
and delivering data and actionable insights via the CNECT® cloud-based
platform at scale.

Thin Film Electronics ASA is a publicly listed company in Norway with
corporate headquarters in Oslo, global headquarters in San Jose,
California, and offices worldwide.