Supply chain

Timestrip, the supplier of smart labels, has reported "solid" progress in the year to 31 December 2007, in spite of "lengthy" sales cycles which forced it to make a share offering to stop it running out of cash.

The firm said this morning (2 June) that sales in the first five months of the new financial year had exceeded its entire sales for 2007.

Timestrip reported a pre-tax loss of £1.7m on sales of £177,000 to 31 December 2007.

The firm expanded production of its Timestrip and iStrip smart labels during the year by licensing the manufacturing rights to third parties.

A three-year rolling £1.5m deal was signed in August with United Pet Group in the US and monthly shipments of Timestrip labels started in March.

Joint chief executives Paul Freedman and Reuben Isbitsky said the firm hoped to position the Timestrip label as a way of tackling food waste and would continue to sell to consumers directly in order to generate a "pull effect" on brands.

Premier Foods is currently trialling Timestrip labels on Branston Pickle jars.

The company also signed contracts with food service distributor 3663 in the UK, WD-40 in the US, and South African restaurant chain Nando's.

The firm raised £1m through a share offer in May, which will be used to help secure these contracts and license deals over the coming months.

Freedman and Isbitsky said they hoped to win business with the cosmetic, pharmaceutical and medical device industries during 2008. The challenge with cosmetic companies was to integrate the Timestrip in an "aesthetically pleasing" format.

"We continually seek to broaden our product range and recent successes from our R&D team will enable us to add further products to our portfolio during 2008," they said.

"We look forward to unveiling these products in due course."