[Reader-list] Bartronics.

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear All,

Below are some excerpts from a profile of Bartronics prepared by SKP
securities in 2006.

I realize that this information is dated however, these excerpts may
give us an idea about a view which would like us to believe that UIDAI
is good for business.

One may also keep in mind how issues like panic and (in)security and
its morphing with the discourse of illegality, citizenship and social
obligation impacts business.

Notice how the language used here is so obviously completely devoid of
any sense of 'social panic', which appears to be very much present in
almost all the arguments which articulates the -need- to have products
like smart card or tags.

The business of panic and (in)security seems to be growing at a
phenomenal rate these days.

That Bartronics has a tie up with US and Israeli companies does not
comes as a surprise, and as SKP literature, below suggests, 'Most of
these associations are more than five years old and as a result,
Bartronics enjoys the best pricing advantage in hardware, in India.'

Is the time now not ripe for people of these countries to maybe come
together to perhaps question the logic of 'smart' solutions?

Warm regards

Taha

http://www.valuenotes.com/skp/skp_Bartronics_30Oct06.pdf

Industry Overview
Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) is the industry term
used to describe the
identification, and/or direct collection of data into a microprocessor
controlled device such
as a computer system or a programmable logic controller (PLC), without
the use of a
keyboard. The technology supports two fundamental requirements viz.
eliminating errors
associated with identification and/or data collection and accelerating
the throughput
process. The key application of the technologies is in tracking and
traceability of
products/articles, product and item identification and sortation,
information and data
processing, security and access control and inventory management.
The technology is designed to bridge the gap between entities in the
real world and
computer databases that describe them. AIDC endows a computer system
with a set of eyes
that can uniquely identify any object that is appropriately tagged.
Computer algorithms
designed to improve efficiency can then work with direct and immediate
knowledge of the
environment, rather than process statistical information collected by
hand at a prior date.
The AIDC technology covers six distinct groups of technologies and
services. They are:
Card Technologies, Data Communications Technologies, Bar Code
Technologies, Radio
Frequency Identification Technologies, Emerging Technologies, and the
Support and
Supplies which serve the industry. The market has been growing at an
estimated CAGR of
over 50% over the past few years and is poised to grow rapidly due to retail and
manufacturing growth in the country. The AIDC potential is expected to
develop strongly
in the emerging markets.

No Competition
Currently, Bartronics does not face any organised competition in
India. However, there are a
number of smaller players, primarily traders of hardware equipment,
who import some of the
barcoding equipment and sell it to smaller companies. Wipro and TCS
are large, software
companies, whose business focus is to provide enterprise-wide software
solutions and do not
intend to enter the niche area in which Bartronics operates. Therefore
we can say that the
company has almost monopoly position in the market

Tie ups
The Company has long-standing tie-ups with some of the leading
hardware manufacturers
in this industry. The Company has tie-ups with M/s Intermec Corporation and PSC
Scanning, both US based companies, for scanning equipment, and
exclusive tie-ups with
both, M/s Synel Industries, Israel, for security and biometrics
products, M/s ID Micro,
USA, for RFID hardware, ASK, Wavex Technologies, Marson Technology Co. Ltd.
Muhlbauer and NBS Technologies. It also represents Escorts Memory Systems, USA.
Most of these associations are more than five years old and as a
result, Bartronics enjoys
the best pricing advantage in hardware, in India.The future growth of
the company would come from RFID
solutions and POS line of products in the immediate and medium term. In the
medium/long term, the growth would be fuelled by RFID, POS and Smartcards.