Minneapolis, MN — June 5, 2006— Vue Technology, the leading provider of item-level RFID solutions, today announced a partnership with TAG Company, a leading provider of anti-shoplifting solutions, to provide integrated Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) and RFID item level tracking solutions for retailers.  As a result, retailers will be able to integrate shelf-based, item-level visibility with existing EAS solutions to provide advanced notification of potential theft activities to store personnel.  Vue Technology and TAG Company will demonstrate the integration at the NRF Loss Prevention Conference & Exhibition June 5 – 7 in Minneapolis. 

The partnership is an important step in the evolution of loss prevention solutions, marking the first integration and convergence of RFID and EAS technologies to combat merchandise theft.  The TrueVUE™ RFID Platform will detect potential item-level shrink activities on a shelf or display rack, and then immediately notify the TAG Company intelligent EAS system within the retail environment.  As a result, store personnel will know about theft activities before the individual has left the store. 

“This partnership marks the wave of the future in loss prevention,” said Robert Locke, CEO of Vue Technology.  “We work very closely with our retail customers, who time and time again tell us that merchandise shrink is a pressing concern.  Our ability to easily integrate with existing store technologies like the EAS solutions provided by TAG Company, further reduces the vulnerability to theft inherent in the retail environment.” 

At the NRF Loss Prevention Conference & Exhibition, Vue Technology and TAG Company will demonstrate a breakthrough “anti-sweep” application featuring Vue-enabled smart shelves displaying media and apparel items tracked at the item level.  Retailers face an increasing threat from organized crime groups that enter the store and sweep a large volume of items off the shelf and flee the store.

In a normal purchasing environment where one or two items are removed from the shelf, the system will not produce an EAS alert.  However, if four or more of the same item are removed from a shelf or rack at the same time, an alert will be sent from the Vue Technology software solution to the TAG Company device, immediately notifying store personnel of abnormal purchasing behavior. This allows store employees to know and respond much more quickly to potential shrink events without waiting until items and perpetrators have left the front of the store.

“This is a classic case of the sum being greater than the parts,” said Mark Krom, President, TAG Company.