07.31.07
Brand theft is a multi-million dollar industry, and is set to become the fastest growing sector of commercial piracy. That's the belief of Rob Warren, managing director of Adhesif Print Ltd., a label converter based in South Auckland, NZ. Warren put his thoughts on the subject into a recent statement to the media.
“Brand theft is far more than a company passing off someone else’s product as its own," he says. "It amounts to the theft of a company’s commercial reputation, integrity and values, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Generally, brand theft encompasses illegal copying of logos and branding, usually by the production of look-alike labels which are virtually impossible for distributors and consumers to spot.
“The cost to a legitimate manufacturer or distributor of an inferior and possibly dangerous pirated product bearing its brand name and finding its way to consumers is huge.”
“Today the serious problem is not so much product-tampering but out-and-out brand theft, where products sold under household labels are not what they purport to be. Product diversion and counterfeiting are not simply major problems for drug companies but are a threat to all companies in the marketplace.”
Companies that fail to take measures to protect their brands against theft expose themselves to costly lawsuits and to trade bans. “With so much at stake, it’s no surprise that theft-guarded labeling is becoming so popular. The aim should be that any label should be hard to duplicate.”
Warren says his company — which prints on three Gallus presses –– can incorporate up to 13 label “protections”.
Adhesif Print, founded in 1981, is a self-adhesive label and label-applicator machinery manufacturer with plants in East Tamaki, Auckland, and Sydney, Australia, operating 24 hours a day.
“Brand theft is far more than a company passing off someone else’s product as its own," he says. "It amounts to the theft of a company’s commercial reputation, integrity and values, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Generally, brand theft encompasses illegal copying of logos and branding, usually by the production of look-alike labels which are virtually impossible for distributors and consumers to spot.
“The cost to a legitimate manufacturer or distributor of an inferior and possibly dangerous pirated product bearing its brand name and finding its way to consumers is huge.”
“Today the serious problem is not so much product-tampering but out-and-out brand theft, where products sold under household labels are not what they purport to be. Product diversion and counterfeiting are not simply major problems for drug companies but are a threat to all companies in the marketplace.”
Companies that fail to take measures to protect their brands against theft expose themselves to costly lawsuits and to trade bans. “With so much at stake, it’s no surprise that theft-guarded labeling is becoming so popular. The aim should be that any label should be hard to duplicate.”
Warren says his company — which prints on three Gallus presses –– can incorporate up to 13 label “protections”.
Adhesif Print, founded in 1981, is a self-adhesive label and label-applicator machinery manufacturer with plants in East Tamaki, Auckland, and Sydney, Australia, operating 24 hours a day.