Letter from the Chairman

As world economies grow and more companies successfully distribute their goods and services at local, national, regional and international markets, illicit counterfeiting of products and documents has become one of the fastest-growing industries in today’s global economy. Diversion of goods outside legitimate distribution channels is undermining market operations. Both of these illegal activities threaten the revenues and profitability of legitimate producers and distributors of goods and undermine the authority of issuers of valuable documents. Not only they affect the financial performance of companies, these illicit activities often undermine security and safety of consumers, as well as dampen the economic drive for innovation. In the long run, it is a serious threat to the future growth of industries and national economies.

While no technology can provide perfect solutions all of the time, producers of goods and issuers of valuable documents can effectively and economically reduce the impact of counterfeiting by adopting an appropriate strategy and making it an inherent part of the total business management process.

Given the devastating effects of counterfeiting, and the substantial damage it inflicts on the customer’s financial performance and its credibility as a reliable producer or distributor, it is clear that the choice is not whether or not to do something about counterfeiting but to decide how to adopt an effective anti-counterfeiting strategy which can mitigate its losses to a minimum, implement it with minimum disruption to business operations, all done with the most cost-effective approach.

It is the responsibility of producers, distributors, suppliers, governments and consumers to work together and eliminate counterfeits from the market place.

Edward D. Kowara
Chairman and CEO