Packaging
Sirit and 3M Brazil Sign Strategic Supply Agreement
Wednesday 16. July 2008 - Electronic Tolling deployment results from successful proof of concept testing
Sirit Inc. (“Sirit”) (TSX: SI), a leading provider of radio frequency identification (“RFID”) technology, announced it has signed a strategic supply agreement (“SSA”) with 3M’s Brazilian subsidiary for Sirit’s RFID reader and tag technology, based upon open architecture protocols, to support transportation-related projects in the Brazilian market. This agreement builds upon the Global Cooperative Marketing Agreement that was signed earlier this year between 3M’s Traffic Safety Systems Division (“TSSD”) and Sirit.
3M Brazil is a subsidiary of 3M Company, St. Paul, Minnesota, and is a leading supplier of materials, solutions and systems to the transportation industry in Brazil. The partnership combines Sirit’s industry-leading IDentity 5100 (“ID5100”) reader and transponder with 3M’s trusted traffic technology solutions, enabling a strong, comprehensive solution targeted to penetrate transportation applications in the Brazilian marketplace.
The strategic partnership between Sirit and 3M Brazil has resulted in a successful proof of concept (“POC”) for tolling applications in many States such as Rio Grande do Sul and Rio de Janeiro. The successful performance experienced in the POC has led 3M Brazil to embark on the deployment of the ID5100 reader and transponder technology in over 40 electronic toll lanes. Over the next 12 months, this specific toll application has the potential to expand to over 400 lane systems and hundreds of thousands of transponders based upon passive, open standard technology.
“We are very pleased with the continued success of our relationship with 3M, in particular to be working with 3M Brazil and the opportunities available for Sirit’s passive RFID technology in this transportation marketplace,” said John Freund, vice president AVI Solutions, Sirit Inc. “3M Brazil is proving to be a strong leader in deploying and supporting RFID solutions for the Brazilian transportation market. This high performance offering provides customers the opportunity to leverage RFID technology in their products with proven performance.”
“We are thrilled to have Sirit’s products as part of our transportation portfolio enabling 3M Brazil to offer solutions and services that address our customers’ critical needs,” added Alberto Gadioli, 3M Brazil’s sales and marketing manager for TSSD. “We believe this partnership will benefit our customers by offering RFID solutions that are based on open standard technology, as well as bringing additional RFID expertise to our projects through Sirit’s highly experienced technical team.”
Terry Griffith, 3M international marketing manager and EVR program manager added that, “3M is very excited about the success of this initial rollout in Brazil and looks forward to additional deployments in Brazil into 2009, along with additional projects that are currently being pursued through our other subsidiaries around the world. With over 45 million vehicles in Brazil, we believe there will be significant opportunity to apply this technology to a number of other vehicle-related applications.”