Holostik India Limited, Chennai

 [07-MAR-01]

Holostik hopes to make a mark in hologram market
P.T. Jyothi Datta
NEW DELHI, March 6

As companies realize that the world is their oyster, come April 1, 2001, quality assurances would become increasingly significant to stay globally competitive.

And here in hangs the tale of the hologram, increasingly used by both public and private enterprises to protect their brand by certifying quality.

Only recently, Holostik India Ltd (HIL), the eight year old subsidiary of the city-based Ukay group, bagged an order to supply 12-crore holograms per month to the Uttar Pradesh Excise Department.

Mr Satyadeep Ray, HIL’s General Manager-Marketing, told Business Line that the project , worth more than Rs 10 crore, involved supplying holograms for liquor bottles and pouches to avoid the sale of spurious products.

Earlier, HIL had successfully bagged two similar projects, worth about Rs 6 crore, from the Tamil Nadu Excise Department.

With an expected turnover of Rs 17 crore in the current fiscal, HIL targets about Rs 40 crore in the next fiscal, buoyed by a quantum jump in the number of orders per year, from 117 last year to about 300 this year.

On why the hologram will not lose out to the barcode, in ensuring genuineness and security of the product, he said: “The hologram is easily identifiable by the consumer and is difficult to duplicate. It is virtually impossible to copy as the optical security device is in the form of a three dimensional impression and display seven colours of the spectrum.”

Mr Ray estimates the market for holograms to be about Rs 100 crore and growing, what with companies looking to battle spurious products, besides becoming globally competitive.

“Our existing projects span making holograms for identity cards used in the Lok Sabha, Raiya Sabha, for the special protection Group and Bhabha Atomic Research Center to holograms for products such as Reynolds pens and garments. Dabur had used holograms for some of its products that were being exported. And now, Archies is planning to use the same for its gifts.”

Mr Manish Gangwani, Manager-Gifts, Archies Greetings and Gifts Ltd, pointed out that the company was planning to have holograms on its gift items to ensure quality.

“We want to make sure that the products don’t go directly from the supplier to the customer. Our Quality Checks and branding come in between.”

Meanwhile, company officials observed that there still remained untapped markets in segments such as garments, banking (where holograms are used on the cheques / drafts), agriculture (on seeds and similar products) and even in currency, to prevents counterfeits.”

 [02-FEB-05]

New Delhi :  Delhi seems to be smacking its lips for foreign firewater. Two months after foreign liquor labels were introduced in the capital, demand has skyrocketed. In fact, the excise department’s revenue has increased 17 times in just two months.

Foreign liquor was introduced in November-end, in time for the city’s wedding - cocktail season. The excise department has sold 5006 bottles of Black Label. Of this 1934 bottles were sold to hotels, restaurants and clubs, whiles the rest were sold through vends. Similarly, 4002 Red Label bottles were sold as were 1490 bottles of Chivas Regal.

This has led to a dramatic increase in revenue. Officials said that revenue collection in November-December 2004 was Rs 17 lakh, or 17 times the collection during the corresponding period of the previous year. “This dramatic increase is mainly because of the introduction of foreign brands and the number of vends,” said an excise official. Just last week’s collections have been Rs 16 lakh as compared to Rs 1 lakh earned by the department for the same period in 2003.

 [05-FEB-05]

Everyday there are numerous cases of spurious drugs, counterfeit currency and fake stamp papers in circulation throughout the country making the state exchequer poorer by thousand of crores and endangering the lives of consumers. All this can be controlled with the help of holograms, which are a sure shot way to fight fake product and are being used throughout the europe and the us. However, our country still doesn’t recognize holograms as an industry and prefers the consumers to be fed with spurious drugs day by day costing thousands of precious lives and loss of crores in revenue. 
A product of the sophisticated technology known as “laser optics”, the security hologram  has been found to be most effective fraud preventive optical security device, the world over, security holograms are extensively used for document authentication. It helps in protecting the authenticity of the originals of important, sensitive and valuable document against the threat of counterfeit and forged documents and help in brand promotion and brand image enhancement.

Being a three – dimensional impression and virtually impossible to replicate, a security hologram is an inimitable symbol of genuineness and has extra-ordinary visual appeal. Also it is impossible to make an exact replica of the hologram and therefore it is regarded as virtually impossible to copy.

Holographic images created by unique optical interference patterns generated by high power lasers have long been acknowledged as an effective means of deterring counterfeiters, their particular strengths lie in their ability to be visually verified with resistance to color copying and scanning providing a very secure mark of authenticity. Advances in origination techniques have allowed the incorporation of a wide range of security features with increasing clarity and definition of the image distinguishing those designed for secure applications.

The range includes microtext, with the use of small text distinguishable only under a magnifying glass, and dual channel techniques which allow a second holographic image to appear on tilting the main image vertically, as well as the use of computer in the assistance of complex design configurations.