RFID Labelling in the Midlands

CLC (UK) Limited commenced trading in 1983 as Charnwood Label Craft (UK). In 1989 Charnwood Label Craft moved to larger premises to accommodate the growing demand and additional plant. Then in 2001 they changed their name to CLC (UK) Limited. The company is situated in the East Midlands University town of Loughborough, Leicestershire at the heart of the Midlands motorway network.

CLC’s smart labels incorporate either Texas Instruments “Tag-it” inlay or Philips “I-CODE” (normally supplied by either UPM Raflatac or Omron). The inlays are so thin that they can be laminated between layers of paper or plastic without adhesive. CLC claim that their labels can be read successfully at speeds up to 2 metres per second. Nick Geraghty, Sales Director of CLC told me that they can supply Smart Labels in bespoke format including blank or printed, unprogrammed, part programmed or fully programmed.

In 2004, CLC formed the Smart Label Consortium; this is a consortium of like-minded individual companies who have successfully demonstrated their ability to work well together and offer tangible and cost effective solutions. Consortium members include: Texas Instruments, UPM Raflatac, Zebra, Psion Tecklogic and Toshiba. This is another good example of the power and importance of partnerships in the RFID marketplace – a theme that I spoke about at the RFID Network Forum in June 2007.

CLC has worked on the tote trial run by Marks and Spencers and also on a WEEE project involving refrigerator collection. Another customer solution is G4S where CLC have worked with Nokia to support a time and attendance solution. They are also currently involved in a major project in the fashion industry.

CLC seem to me to be a good example of the power base in SME organisation in the UK dealing successfully with supply RFID solutions.