Tesa Scribos unveils beverage brand protection suite

Tesa Scribos has bundled four of its security technologies into a new platform - dubbed tesa BevSeal - aimed at protecting premium beverages.

BevSeal was showcased for the first time at Wine Track in Beaune, France, earlier this month, with Tesa Scribos emphasising the potential of the technology to protect against the refilling of original bottles, bottle counterfeiting and grey-market trading, the three primary security threats facing the premium beverages sector.

The four technologies - a security label, item-level codes for both authenticating bottles and track-and-trace applications and an app for in-the-field testing - are already being used by Tesa Scribos' customers.

The security seals - made using laser lithography - are applied to the neck of the bottle in such a way as to make it difficult for sealing caps to be removed and original bottles refilled. It connects the neck seal to the bottle and cannot be removed either by applying hot or cold temperatures.

When it is opened, the security seal is destroyed so retailers and consumers can see at a glance if the bottle has been tampered with. Meanwhile, thanks to the coding, the security seal is also unique and the coding is also repeated on the seal on multiple verification levels, both visible and concealed.

The smartphone app - called dtect and based on a QR code reader - allows consumers, retailers and customs officials "to distinguish original drinks quickly and unmistakeably from counterfeit products. Finally, the traceability element - trust & trace - makes it possible to trace the journey of an original bottle along the supply chain.

So far no client has adopted all of them in combination - most use one or two depending on their priorities and security requirements - but the full portfolio "gives the maximum possible added value to the brand," said a company spokesman.



Wine Track was an ideal location to launch the BevSeal suite, she added, as the company already numbers a large number of premium winemakers - including  Castel, Chateau Larrivet Haut-Brion, Chateau La Marzelle, Chateau Fleur Cardinale, Chateau Perron and many more - among its existing customers.

In France, the Bordeaux & Bordeaux Supérieur Winemakers’ Association as well as the Saint-Emilion Wine Council use counterfeit protection solutions from Tesa Scribos and recommend them to their members.

"For connoisseurs, exclusive wines and spirits are a treat for the palate and usually a financial investment, too," said the company.

"It therefore causes great upset when counterfeiters fill the bottles with a cheap blend rather than the expensive original product – not to mention the damage it causes to the image of vineyards and distilleries."