TSC has experienced a couple of years of growth and change, including the acquisition of Bluebird and the launch of various new products, which are helping to grow the company in new and existing markets.
For TSC Auto ID, the past 18 months have been busy to say the least. In November 2024, the company acquired Bluebird and, since then, has also launched a range of new products into various print markets.
But for Benoit Charnallet, product sales manager EMEA at TSC Auto ID, the busyness is only a good thing, as it means that the company is growing and providing more products to more customers.
The acquisition of Bluebird has made a big difference. “It also operates in the auto ID space, but with a different portfolio,” Benoit says. “And that’s making a big difference as it enables us to maximise the synergy between the brands and deliver fully integrated Auto ID solutions, connecting data capture, labelling and mobility across entire workflows.”
It also means TSC has access to Bluebird’s partners, expanding their reach too. “It’s a win-win situation,” he adds. “We have a good opportunity to grow our business and provide opportunities to our channel partners to do the same.
“For end users, we are providing a new alternative to some other offers that are already in the market. There are very few companies out there that can provide printing solutions and enterprise mobile computers (EMC) – and we are one of them. It’s not just about selling a product, you must provide the service, the maintenance, the access to spare parts too – all these things are very important. By enriching our portfolio, we can offer our customers in the channel a complete one-stop shop concept.”
He continues, “Our ecosystem is further strengthened through integration with labelling and data management software such as BarTender, ensuring seamless data flow across enterprise systems.”
New products
TSC has announced a raft of new and improved products, models and accessories into the market in the past 12 months, including adding RFID functionality to its MB241 Series industrial label printer and expanding the scope of its TH DH Series, including 2-inch 6.5-inch OD (outer diameter) direct thermal printers with optional HF RFID functionality.
These additions fulfil the growing demand for printing diverse and application-specific media while enhancing adaptability across multiple industries and working environments.
“The two-inch printer is for applications like patient identification, or books in libraries,” says Benoit. “It’s a new market for us, a new technology. It’s also showing that our RFID offer is expanding, covering more markets.”
RFID demand
As these launches show, demand for RFID is growing. “The first main market to use RFID was retail,” explains Benoit. “Many key retailers are now using it because it’s very efficient, especially for things like inventory management. Its use is also growing in transport and logistics and industry. That’s just two more markets where we are promoting our products.”
Benoit expects demand for RFID to continue to increase. “With the volume of orders growing, and the production process improving, the price is going down, which also helps support the development of this technology,” he says.
“In retail, for example, RFID’s becoming a standard, which means there is a huge volume used. The return on investment for this technology is easy to calculate and helps to make it an easier sell for partners.”
Another growing market is for 2-inch and 4-inch OD direct thermal printers with HF or UHF RFID functionality.
“The HF market is more specialised than UHF,” explains Benoit. “The bigger volume is on UHF, there are more applications as you can read hundreds of tags at the same time, and the distance of reading can be very long, so users can deal with a massive number of items quickly and efficiently. HF is more contactless, it’s to identify something close and can be read by a mobile phone or HF reader. In healthcare, for example, it can be used for producing things like labels for identifying blood samples.
“Also, UHF is sensitive to liquid and metal, whereas HF isn’t, so it can be used in a range of different applications. Our HF reader is an interesting product and quite innovative. For TSC, it represents additional business as it’s a new market that we are addressing.”
Sustainability
Sustainability continues to be an increasing consideration for customers – and TSC too. “Sustainability is something which companies are more concerned about and this is driving demand for products like linerless labelling as it saves a lot of waste,” says Benoit.
“Linerless labelling also brings other benefits such as more flexibility and better printer capability as, with the same consumable, you can print different sizes of labels. You also have the benefit of improving capacity with the same volume. You can have 40% more labels on a roll without any more waste.
“This is another growing market as more businesses adopt it, so demand for consumables for these printers is also going up, which is helping lower prices, making the cost of linerless more attractive for end users.”
Indeed, TSC’s MB241 Series linerless printer has proved extremely popular in the market and was recognised in 2025 for design excellence with a Red Dot Award for Product Design.
Benoit adds linerless labelling is being adopted by new sectors. “The first market to really embrace linerless labelling was the food industry, but now we are seeing more logistics businesses taking it up, which adds another dimension in terms of volume. It will continue to move to other sectors in the supply chain too.
“Today, RFID is still in front of linerless in terms of demand, but demand for both is growing.”
Security
With the increasing use of smart labelling comes fears about security. However, Benoit says that chips in smart labels are encoded in such a way that make them difficult to change.
Security should also be paramount in the printers that print the labels too. These are often networked devices so are as vulnerable as any other part of a business’ network – so must be part of any security plan. “All our printers have security features integrated into them,” says Benoit. “Cybersecurity is a priority for TSC as it’s what our customers demand, and all our products are more than compliant with the necessary regulations.”
Future
With the product range that TSC currently has – and developments in the pipeline – Benoit is looking to the future with confidence. “The good news is that our markets are growing,” he says.
There are various factors that Benoit anticipates will help to drive further growth across TSC’s markets. For instance, increasing regulation and demand from customers for goods to be tracked throughout their journey is influencing customers’ buying decisions.
“Regulation, efficiency and traceability are all drivers,” says Benoit. “For instance, in warehousing or e-commerce, the requirements are huge because operators want to improve the customer experience and provide comprehensive tracking of goods, to avoid loss, and so on. The tracking is a core component of e-commerce today.”
This means TSC’s focus remains on growth. “For TSC, we will consolidate and continue to grow our business,” says Benoit. “We are already in a good position. It will be mainly organic growth and extending our customer base. We are also developing our channel relationships, and this will support the growth of our business. In parallel, the integration and the development of Bluebird will continue and the contribution of that company in our global business will grow significantly in the next year.”
