The relaunch of Authentication & Brand News™ in January of this year came, to a large extent, as a response to a set of market trends triggered by the effects of COVID-19 which have been exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine and widespread inflation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an acceleration of what was already on the cards as far as brand owners are concerned: the need to change the way in which physical brand intelligence- gathering at point of sale is carried out.

Crane Currency and Essentra Packaging have announced a strategic partnership to develop a range of next generation security features for the pharmaceutical and beauty packaging industry.

In the January issue of Authentication & Brand News™, we described how brand protection systems increasingly consist of an integrated physical/digital solution that offers multiple functions.

Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions has launched ValiCash™, an app that not only identifies high security documents, but authenticates them too, giving either a ‘Pass’ or a ‘Fail’ response almost instantaneously.