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North England Continues to Attract RFID Developers and Users from North America

Region Promotes IT Expertise and Aggressive R&D Tax Credits at RFID World Conference

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The North of England Inward Investment Agency (NEIIA), the organization responsible for promoting direct business investment from North America into Northern England, announced today that it expects the RFID sector to be a key part of the area’s continued growth.

This assessment has in part resulted from the recent decisions within the past six months by a number of leading North American RFID developers and users to make significant investments in North England. These include:

• Trenstar—Located in Colorado, Trenstar offers RFID-enabled asset tracking technology for the beverage industry. As one of the first U.S. RFID companies to establish its European headquarters in North England, Trenstar recently reconfirmed its commitment to the region by investing $10 million to open an asset management facility in Leeds.
• Quand Medical—Based in Canada, Quand recently opened offices in North East England to expand the development of the company’s unique technology combining RFID and mobile phone technology that addresses medication non-compliance issues.
• Red Prairie—Supplying RFID supply chain solutions for Fortune 100 companies, Wisconsin-based Red Prairie opened a new facility in Yorkshire that will serve as the logistics hub for its UK and European operations.
• RFID4U—As the largest RFID training company in the U.S., California-based RFID4U is now offering its RFID certification training seminars to the UK marketplace in conjunction with Sheffield Hallam University and IT Foundry, a UK IT training center. As part of this program, RFID4U will provide the tools needed to earn the CompTIA RFID+ certification, a new industry standard focused on RFID skill development.

“While the widespread adoption of RFID technology, especially in the retail industry, has slowed due to the lack of industry standards and rising privacy concerns, globally there has been considerable growth in niche RFID applications,” said Ed Pennington, vice president of business development at the North of England Inward Investment Agency. “As one of the top technology clusters in the world, North England has continued to attract a variety of companies that are both developing and implementing RFID technology for baggage handling, animal tagging, smart cards and even passports through the new National Smart Card Project.”

The Future of RFID

As a sign of its commitment to the to the growth and development of the RFID industry, NEIIA recently sponsored a webcast titled “The Future of RFID” which was hosted by Technology Review, a publication which aims to promote the understanding of emerging technologies.

The panel of experts, which included Yael Maguire, Cofounder and CTO, ThingMagic and Sanjay Sarma, Cofounder, Auto-ID Center, explored the current state of RFID and the future impact of the revolutionary technology. While the discussion covered a variety of industry topics, a key issue discussed was that many of the current applications of RFID have been focused on managing the global supply chain, a practice that doesn’t affect the everyday consumer.

“What many consumers fail to realize is that they are using RFID technologies in their everyday lives, for example when they go through electronic toll collection devices on highways and bridges or take advantage of the new credit card systems that only require the card to be passed in front of a sensor,” said John Greaves, another panelist and an RFID expert from Yorkshire Forward, one of the three development agencies that make up the North of England Inward Investment Agency. “That said, future applications of RFID could have a much more personal affect on consumers and include everything from environmental monitoring, to vehicle and congestion management, to near field communications, to better securing people, products and property around the world.”

Gaining a Foothold in Europe

“Unlike the recent outsourcing phenomenon, technology companies aren’t shutting down offices or plants in the U.S. to reduce costs,” commented Ed Pennington. “Instead, their motivation for opening additional operations in North England is to tap into the lucrative European market and ultimately generate positive growth for the whole organization.”

According to Pennington, a key factor that has attracted many U.S. technology companies to North England is the availability of tax credits to businesses conducting any type of R&D in the UK market (i.e. feasibility studies, beta testing, clinical trials, prototyping, etc.). If a U.S. company has less than 250 employees worldwide it can claim back 150 percent of the UK-related R&D expenses as a tax credit, while if there are more than 251 employees worldwide the company can claim 125 percent.

RFID World

NEIIA representatives are attending RFID World (Booth #412), the premier event for many key stakeholders in the RFID industry that takes place on March 27-28, 2007.

About North England

With a population of over 14 million people (7 million skilled employees), North England is home to more than 3,600 foreign companies including 1,300 from North America. With a GDP that exceeds $300 billion, the region’s economy is bigger than that of Austria, Sweden and Belgium. North England boasts internationally renowned cities, such as Manchester, Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffield, each of which offers truly distinctive commercial environments with strong expertise in the IT, energy, healthcare, financial services and aviation/aerospace sectors. In addition, the region possesses direct air links with nine gateway cities in North America and throughout Europe.

About The North of England Inward Investment Agency

The North of England Inward Investment Agency (NEIIA) is a UK Government sponsored organization that provides advice, and collaborates and partners with businesses—from small technology start-ups to Global 100 companies—seeking to gain entry and succeed in the European market through a North England location. NEIIA represents the three key Regional Development Agencies of Northern England—Northwest Development Agency, Yorkshire Forward and One NorthEast—in the USA and Canada from offices in Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and Atlanta. For more information, please visit: www.northengland.com.

Press Contacts:

Sanjiv Dua
RFID4U
866-400-RFID Toll Free
408-739-3500 International
Fax: 408-739-3502
sdua@rfid4u.com
http://www.rfid4u.com