Prepress
Kodak Helps Put a Cork on Ice Wine Counterfeiting
Wednesday 28. May 2008 - Desirable, expensive and rare, premium Canadian ice wine is increasingly being exploited by counterfeiters whose actions damage the revenues and reputation of this emerging product.
Kodak, with packaging provider Stanpac, will demonstrate the KODAK TRACELESS System for Anticounterfeiting during the Uncorked Grape & Wine Industry Conference & Tradeshow at Niagara College in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, May 27-28. Attendees will see how this easy to implement authentication system is being applied to ice wine bottles via a silk screen method.
“The wine industry in Ontario offers world renowned ice wine that is envied the world over,” said Murray Bain, Vice President, Marketing, Stanpac, Inc. “Unfortunately, some are taking advantage of the brand by passing off inferior products as Canadian or counterfeiting well known premium labels.”
Ice wines are produced in extreme conditions using grapes still frozen on the vine. As Canadas reputation for this product continues to grow and expand, counterfeiters increasingly target the regions vintners. In places like China, where counterfeiting is widespread, sales of Canadian ice wine have dropped 60 percent from previously recorded sales volumes due in part to the significant number of phony products being marketed and sold to consumers as genuine.
Counterfeiting also extends to the manufacturing process, where fake “Canadian ice wine bottles” are becoming increasingly available on the Internet.
“The KODAK TRACELESS System offers a solution that Canadian premium wine exporters can incorporate in their packaging to help eliminate this substantial problem once and for all,” said Bain. “Stanpac looks forward to working with Kodak to help the Canadian wine industry be the best that it can be.”
Since 2007, Kodak has worked with several premium vintners using the TRACELESS System to develop authentication and protection solutions. Its forensically invisible markers are embedded during the manufacturing or printing process, allowing the winery to protect the authenticity of its high value product, as well as the investments of its customers and collectors.
“The span of global counterfeiting creates many challenges for any worldwide enforcement efforts,” said Steve Powell, General Manager and Director, Security Solutions, Kodaks Graphic Communications Group. “Working together with manufacturers, packagers and brand owners, we can we can fight to protect wineries from losses due to fakes.”
KODAK Security Solutions leverage Kodaks expertise in material science, digital imaging, document imaging, and graphic communications to create a broad portfolio of products and technologies that protect against counterfeiting. KODAK Security Solutions are backed by KODAK Service and Support, with more than 3,000 professionals reaching more than 120 countries. KODAK Service and Support professionals are uniquely qualified to provide services that control costs, maximize productivity, and minimize business risk.