The KURZ Group takes over tesa scribos

With the takeover of the tesa affiliate scribos on September 1, 2021, the KURZ Group – one of the global leaders in thin-film technology and market leader for security elements for banknotes and documents – will expand its expertise and product range. Over the past years, tesa scribos has developed into a market-leading digital platform for brand protection that can be combined with highly innovative security features. scribos is thus serving a growing need of its multinational customer base who value brand protection and want to track the worldwide emergence of counterfeit products.

"In 2021, scribos counts among the German TOP 100 Innovators and is a leading provider of brand protection. KURZ offers a unique process and application expertise in thin-film technology as the basis for complex security solutions for product and brand protection. All this concentrated competence offers an extremely promising combination. That is why we see great potential in joint product development and in the exchange of ideas in R&D. This will open up completely new options for our shared customers to protect their products and brands," explains Executive Board member Walter Kurz.

"Over 20 years of cooperation with tesa SE, the scribos product portfolio has expanded and developed significantly. While at first it was our tesa adhesive technology that made scribos products interesting, it is now the digital features that can be combined with counterfeit protection markings. It is a field where together with another partner scribos may develop significantly greater prospects for the future. A collaboration with the experts from KURZ creates an ideal basis for this extremely creative and innovative team to really get going," tesa SE CEO Dr. Norman Goldberg explains the decision to consign the scribos affiliate to new hands. 

Joining competence forces against global counterfeiters

Last year, the German Customs reported a new high for the confiscation of plagiarized products: The total value of the discovered goods amounted to 238.87 million Euro. Clothing and electronic products were particularly affected.other segment But other segments were not spared either. Significantly more counterfeits were uncovered, ranging from medicines to tools as well as food and cosmetics. Despite a record number of detections: Experts agree that this is only the tip of the iceberg and that counterfeiters are still able to operate undetected on a large scale all around the world.

This signifies an incalculable risk for brand manufacturers. Two industry giants for security solutions are now countering this trend with a powerful alliance: With KURZ and tesa scribos, two of the most innovative providers of security solutions worldwide are pooling their specific strengths.

Focused innovation as a key for success

With the products and services from tesa scribos, the globally operating KURZ Group complements and expands the portfolio of the core security division and is further expanding the brand and product protection segment. In doing so, KURZ mainly relies on the similarities between the two specialized companies: the huge innovative strength, the aspiration to develop custom-made security solutions for individual needs as well as the global service orientation.

"Today, more than 500 customers worldwide – including global brands, such as Stellantis, Bosch, Castel and Chloé – already rely on our know-how," says Sebastian Praefcke, Managing Director at tesa scribos. "The scribos labeling technology is at the heart of the protection program. The markings represent the touchpoint, in combination with digital platforms and tools, to force counterfeits out of the market, to create transparency in the supply chain and to gain significant market insights."

Using synergies for highly effective solutions

In the future, thanks to the merger into the KURZ Group, tesa scribos will stand in line with other renowned affiliates, such as OVD Kinegram (one of the world's leading providers of security solutions for the protection of government documents and banknotes with KINEGRAM^® technology), PolyIC (innovative manufacturer of printed touch interface technology) or KURZ Digital (application specialist for individual digitization concepts). New synergies that are now emerging in the Kurz Group harbor the potential for security solutions that will make illegal business more difficult than ever for counterfeiters around the world. Moreover, they open up completely new digital brand and product perspectives for manufacturers. 

Building on the success foundation and maintaining trust

True to the motto 'Never touch a running system', the existing organization – including management and employees, as well as the locations of tesa scribos as part of the KURZ Security Division – will be taken over and preserved in their existing form. Sales relationships, customer service and supply reliability for customers also remain unaffected. "In 20 years, tesa scribos has developed into one of the leading solution providers for digital change at product level and has redefined brand protection with markings and digitization solutions. We want to maintain this drive to success by strengthening the foundation of this success story,  explains KURZ and adds: "Notoriously, when it comes to security, trust is the strongest currency. Just like tesa scribos, we've earned this trust from our customers over the years."

Therefore, customers will experience this alliance as a profitable joining of competence in matters of security, with top products, solutions, and services. And if you take a closer look, you may recognize the KURZ addition to the tesa family by slight adjustments to product brand names.