Nanotech Security posts record revenues

Canada's Nanotech Security Corp added three new customers in the fourth quarter of 2014, adding $1.3m to its order books.

The company only secured its first commercial client last year and the fresh orders suggest momentum is building behind its portfolio of anti-counterfeit technologies.

Revenues in the fourth-quarter came in at $1.5m, with $1m of that total coming from sales of security features, and Nanotech has now added a second shift at its facility in Thurso, Quebec, to help meet the increased demand.

The turnover was almost three times that booked in the same period of 2013, with the increase coming on the back of Nanotech's recent $17.5m acquisition of Fortress Optical, a company which produces optical film used as banknote security threads. The company posted a net loss of just under $1m in the quarter.

"I am extremely pleased with how the recent Fortress Optical acquisition has transformed our company," commented Nanotech's chief executive Doug Blakeway, who noted that the company is also seeing interest from outside the banknote sector in its security and branding products.

Since the acquisition of Fortress Optical, Vancouver-based Nanotech now operates two divisions - one covering security features and another focused on surveillance technologies - that are managed separately.

The security features division provides light-based recognition nanotechnology and optical thin-films (OTF) for use in "anti‐counterfeiting, authentication processes, and luxury goods including currency, legal documents, and commercial products."

The company's nanotechnology is based on the use of billions of nano-holes that are impressed or embossed onto a substrate material, such as polymer or metal,  and which yield unique light signatures that resist copying.

The optical features - which can be either overt or covert - can be directly applied onto products, according to the company.

Nanotech ended the fourth quarter of 2014 with $2.7m in cash reserves.