For additional information about this release, please contact:
Andy Johnson,
630/260-3504
Copyright © 2000 Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation
Smurfit-Stone Teams With Isotag Technology To Introduce
The Masterguard™ System For Counterfeit And Traceable Packaging Protection
CHICAGO, January 5, 2000 -- Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation (Nasdaq: SSCC) has teamed with Isotag Technology, Inc., to develop the MasterGuard™ system, an exclusive line of anti-counterfeit and traceable packaging. The MasterGuard™ system has been successfully introduced into the marketplace.
Product counterfeiting and diversion has a multi-billion dollar economic impact and despite developments in technologies to prevent this practice, it continues to grow at a rapid pace. The MasterGuard™ system was designed to provide marketers of brand name products with a superior, covert and technology advanced product that can be used on-site to authenticate their products.
The MasterGuard™ system includes two distinct products, AuthentiPak and TrackPak. AuthentiPak employs two distinct technologies providing a high level of security. The first includes a chemical tag that is uniquely designed for each customer application. Product authenticity can be verified by using a handheld detector to read the chemical marking, making it easy to perform tests on site at retail or warehouse locations. The second security level includes a foolproof molecular identification code. This code is applied at the same time as the chemical marker reducing manufacturing complexity and costs. Authentication of the molecular code is performed using a proprietary analytical laboratory test. AuthentiPak is applied in trace quantities making it virtually impossible to identify and thus copy.
TrackPak provides a secure and efficient way to trace products that have been diverted from intended destinations. An invisible ink is applied to the package with a destination code. Customers can quickly verify destination codes with a palm-size, laser-based viewing device. This secure, cost-effective invisible ink can be adapted to almost all printing technologies.
"MasterGuard™ has undergone rigorous testing by an independent research laboratory, including successful resistance to security breaches," said Andy Johnson, director of Smurfit-Stone Center for Innovation. "The MasterGuard™ system gives marketers and licensees a new, advanced tool - at an affordable price - to help limit counterfeiting of their products that impact their sales as well as the integrity of their brand names. Early customer feedback has been more than encouraging."
Isotag Technology, Inc., headquartered in Houston, is a research and technologies company selling proprietary tagging materials into oil and gas, cosmetics, plastics, and packaging/printing markets for security and identification solutions where protection from counterfeiting, diversion, and product liability claims is desired or needed.
Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation was formed on November 18, 1998 as a result of the merger of Jefferson Smurfit Corporation and Stone Container Corporation. The company is the industry's leading manufacturer of paper and paperboard-based packaging, including containerboard, corrugated containers, industrial bags, and claycoated recycled boxboard; and is the world's largest paper recycler. In addition, Smurfit-Stone is a leading producer of folding cartons, paper tubes and cores, and labels. The company operates about 300 facilities worldwide and employs more than 30,000.