Cash boost for security firm (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Cash boost for security firm

A SWINDON hi-tech security firm is facing a bright future after a massive cash investment.

TSSI, which is based in the Groundwell Industrial Estate in North Swindon, is aiming to double its turnover and increase its staff following £3.5m investment from venture capitalists ACUS Management Partners.

The company, which specialises in security measures for documentation, fingerprint biometrics and identification systems employs 46 people.

Executive chairman Danny Chapchal, right, said: "TSSI is a typical British technology story. It has developed world-class technology and secured deals with world-class customers.

"But it hasn't communicated and built upon its success.

"Since the events of 9/11 there is not a company anywhere spending less on security. They may be spending less on other things but none of them will be security.

"The firm is a facing a bright future and I think over the next few years we could see a doubling in the size of the workforce. Currently we are looking at a range of new partnerships in the USA with large security firms there."

One of the areas in which the company specialises is the fight against fraud and counterfeiting and it has many customers in China and Hong Kong trying to tackle the problem.

"One of our main areas is in stopping the fraud of bank passbooks and tax stamps," said Mr Chapchal.

"We us magnetic strips in documents such as tax payment forms. Before, people could make a fake stamp to say they had paid their tax, making the system open to fraud."

Technology, called Deedmark, designed by TSSI, sees documents protected from fraud by machine-readable magnetic seals hot-foiled onto paper.

Once applied, they provide each item with a permanent identity that cannot be copied, altered or erased and which can can only be read by a special reader.

The foil fractures if attempts are made to remove it, eliminating the potential for fraud.

The new investment is being used to expand the firm's manufacturing capability and develop its research and development, marketing and sales resources.

ACUS is also pursuing merger and acquisition opportunities that would enable TSSI to broaden its product portfolio.

To find out more about TSSI visit the website at www.tssi.co.uk.