FRAMINGHAM, Mass., October 15, 2009—Citing rapid replenishment of goods to the retail selling-floor and labor-saving source tagging benefits, Avery Dennison asserted today that GS1 EPCglobal’s initiative for RFID-based Electronic Article Surveillance will be welcomed by entities throughout the apparel/retail supply chain. The comments came in support of GS1 EPCglobal’s issuing of strategic overview and technical implementation guides for using GS1 EPCglobal RFID-based EAS standards with reusable and disposable tags.
“There are enormous benefits to combining the advantages of EPC/RFID and EAS technology in a single tag, and the concept is expected to gain support throughout the retail industry,” stated Paul Chamandy, vice president, new business development for Avery Dennison. “GS1 EPCglobal’s new strategic overview and implementation guides provide a clear blueprint for RFID/EAS adoption. As the guides gain acceptance, they will unlock a host of opportunities for cost containment, operational efficiency and inventory accuracy.”
Avery Dennison is a partner in EPCglobal’s EAS Phase 2 Joint Requirement Group, which developed the new guides.
“The GS1 EPCglobal RFID-based EAS guides that we released today present a new model for the way in which retailers will monitor and manage shrink,” said Chris Adcock, president of EPCglobal Inc. “EPC/RFID is designed to deliver item visibility, enabling retailers to reduce stock-outs, enhance the shopper’s buying experience and increase sales.”
Avery Dennison supplies retailers, brand owners and manufacturers with a full complement of tags and labels that can be equipped with RFID-based EAS technology. The Company’s business consultants have helped some of the world’s largest retailers successfully implement global source-tagging EAS programs, as well as item-level RFID programs.
Multi-use Functionality
Chamandy notes that multiple standards currently exist for EAS systems throughout the retail industry. By consolidating EAS with RFID technology retailers can enjoy both security and operational functionalities from a single tag.
“Existing EAS technologies only provide an indication that a theft has occurred when a product exits the store,” Chamandy said, adding that RFID tags identify products down to the item level. “RFID-based EAS provides intelligence regarding what specifically was stolen and precisely when that theft took place. It allows a retailer to do timely replenishment of lost product, and it provides enhanced visibility to better understand how to improve loss prevention strategies.”
Chamandy added that the single tag will also facilitate source tagging, a process that relieves retailers from having to apply security tags at the store level. “The existence of multiple EAS technologies currently in play increases the complexity of applying EAS tags at source,” he explained. “That’s because vendors currently are required to tag differently depending on the technology the retailer is using. The expectation with GS1 EPCglobal’s new guides is that they will create uniformity and facilitate the use of GS1 EPCglobal Gen 2 item-level RFID tags at source.”
Chamandy advises companies wishing to employ RFID-based EAS solutions to seek out suppliers having global resources and deep experience delivering tags to worldwide locations as part of source tagging programs.
“Look for vendors who have proven they can rapidly fulfill any RFID/EAS requirement,” he said, “from the point of manufacture through to the point of sale.”
About Avery Dennison
Avery Dennison is a recognized industry leader that develops innovative identification and decorative solutions for businesses and consumers worldwide. The Company’s products include pressure-sensitive labeling materials; graphics imaging media; retail apparel ticketing and branding systems; RFID inlays and tags; office products; specialty tapes; and a variety of specialized labels for automotive, industrial and durable goods applications. A FORTUNE 500 Company with sales of $6.7 billion in 2008, Avery Dennison is based in Pasadena, California and employs more than 36,000 employees in over 60 countries. Visit www.averydennison.com for more information.
For more information about the Information and Brand Management Division of Avery Dennison’s Retail Information Services Group, please visit www.ibmd.averydennison.com.
About GS1 EPCglobal Standards:
GS1 EPCglobal standards are a set of integrated industry-driven standards which have been developed to meet user requirements enabling the identification of objects, data capture and sharing of information among partners throughout the supply chain. These standards are developed within the framework of EPCglobal Inc.
About EPCglobal Inc:
EPCglobal Inc is a subsidiary of the global not-for-profit standards organization GS1, and supports the global adoption of the Electronic Product Code as industry-driven standards to enable accurate, immediate and cost-effective visibility of information throughout the supply chain.
For more information about EPCglobal Inc, visit: www.epcglobalinc.org
About GS1:
GS1 is a neutral, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the design and implementation of global standards and solutions to improve the efficiency and visibility in supply chains. GS1 is driven by more than a million companies, who execute more than five billion transactions a day with the GS1 System of Standards. This makes it the most widely used supply chain standards system in the world.
For more information about GS1, visit: www.gs1.org
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