YPB Group Secures Partner to Access Thailand’s Tax Stamp Market

Product authentication and consumer engagement solutions provider YPB Group (which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange) has signed a master service agreement (MSA) with a new channel partner, Specific Products, in Thailand, in order to access the high-volume tobacco and tax stamp industries in that country, according to reports in various financial media.

Specific Products, based in Bangkok, is a reseller of gravure inks and adhesives. Its main customers are Thailand’s tobacco manufacturers, which order packaging and cigarette filters from the company. Specific Products also operates in Thailand’s tax stamp industry.

Thailand applies stamps onto spirits and cigarettes and is one of the largest tax stamp users in the world. Tax stamp production is currently split between the Bank of Thailand Note Printing Works and Chan Wanich Security Printing.

The MSA is for a three-year term and gives Specific Products the right to promote and sell YPB’s authentication technologies to both current and new customers, with particular focus on YPB’s Connect Platform and T2 Tracer technologies. The Connect Platform provides a way for consumers to engage with and authenticate products via their smartphones, and T2 Tracer consists of an invisible tracing technology that can be integrated into product packaging.

YPB CEO, John Houston, said: ‘our sales strategy of reinvigorated focus on channel partners able to take us into the heart of high-volume industries continues to gain momentum. It is proving its power in China with our successful new partnerships there driving revenues.

‘Now with Specific Products, we are opening doors to high-volume, large industries in Thailand but at low cost and with low risk. Given we are already engaging with Specific’s customers, we are hopeful of first revenues from this channel in coming months.’

According to a 2019 Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) report, the Thai Excise Department had been planning to introduce new tobacco stamps incorporating a unique QR code for track and trace. It will therefore be interesting to see what future role YPB may play in the provision of authentication and track and trace technologies for Thailand’s tax stamps.