Optel hits acquisition trail again, buying GeoTraceability

Optel Group has made another acquisition in the track-and-trace category, buying Anglo-Canadian company GeoTraceability.

Just a few weeks after buying Verify Brand, Optel has reached a deal to take over GeoTraceability for an undisclosed sum and claim ownership of its information systems, which it says combine “traceability and geomatics technologies to support the inclusion of smallholder producers of commodities and raw materials into complex supply chains.”

Optel says the deal will enable it to expand its traceability offerings to include the first link in the supply chain, namely raw materials and resource extraction, to add to its current coverage of manufacturing, distribution, consumption, and waste tracking.

The company currently operates primarily in the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors, and the acquisition also marks its entry into new markets such as the agri-food and natural resources industries.

“Supported by increasing demand, geo-traceability for raw materials is now a well-known concept throughout the world,” commented GeoTraceability’s president Pierre Courtemanche.

“Our solutions are currently used in 17 countries, mainly for cocoa, coffee, fruit, nuts, vegetables, cotton, palm oil as well as minerals, and our database contains information on more than 250,000 small-scale producers in Asia, Africa and South America,” he added.