German Retailer Netto Hits Milestone in Commitment to a Future with Optimized Checkout and More Efficient Plastic Recycling

Netto Store Brand Food and Beverage Products are Digimarc Recycle-Ready

• Digimarc partnership: non-visible digital watermarks ensure easier scanning and valuable packaging design
• Sustainable: Digimarc Recycle enables a future with optimized plastic recycling

Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ: DMRC) and the German retailer Netto Marken-Discount announced an important milestone in delivering an easier, more efficient checkout while ensuring Netto-branded products at Netto’s 4,300 stores nationwide, are Digimarc Recycle-ready. Netto private labeled food and beverage products are now digitized using Digimarc’s product digitization technology, including incorporating covert Digimarc digital watermarks into the packaging.

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German retailer Netto Marken-Discount announced an important milestone in delivering an easier, more efficient checkout while ensuring Netto-branded products at Netto’s 4,300 stores nationwide are Digimarc Recycle-ready. (Photo: Business Wire)

“It is exciting to partner with retailers like Netto that are setting the example for the rest of the industry and leading the way for a circular economy,” said Digimarc CEO Riley McCormack. “More sustainable packaging is becoming a business imperative, and Digimarc’s digital watermarks are transforming recycling as a validated way to improve circularity dramatically.”

“We initially cooperated with Digimarc to optimize our checkout by digitizing our private label food and beverage products with Digimarc’s technology,” said Christina Stylianou, Netto Corporate Spokesperson. “Netto is now also well positioned to adopt Digimarc Recycle by leveraging the same Digimarc digital watermarking technology that makes the checkout easier and more efficient. We are ready and excited for Digimarc Recycle to come to Germany in the near future.”

Retailers like Netto implement Digimarc’s digital watermarking, imperceptible to the human eye, across a package's or label artwork's surface area. The covert nature of digital watermarks works well with packaging designs and branding. Netto has enhanced 1000s of food and beverage packages with digital watermarks.

Since 2018, Netto Marken-Discount has been the first and only retailer in Germany to integrate Digimarc's digital watermarks on the packaging of its private-label food range. “The fact that Digimarc digital watermarks didn’t obscure our branding and therefore enhanced packaging was another important factor in selecting Digimarc as a long-term partner,” added Ms. Stylianou.

Leading the Way to Circularity

Netto boasts an extensive sustainability program — assuming responsibility for business outcomes is part of the Netto corporate culture. The retailer focuses on four areas: the careful use of resources, a sustainable purchasing strategy, fair trade and cooperation, and social commitment. In addition to expanding Netto’s sustainable private-label products, the retailer is reducing its ecological footprint through initiatives focused on climate protection, biodiversity, freshwater, and resources.

“At Netto, we are committed to less plastic packaging, more recycling, and more responsibility,” said Ms. Stylianou. “Digimarc is a valued partner in supporting us in achieving our sustainability goals as we look to the future.”

Commitment to End Plastic Pollution Worldwide

The technology to effect change exists today. Digimarc Recycle represents a revolution in the sortation of plastic waste and recycling. By linking covert digital watermarks (used to deterministically identify plastic packaging to any desired level of granularity) with an extensible cloud-based repository of product attributes (such as brand, SKU, product variant, packaging composition, food/non-food use, etc.), Digimarc Recycle overcomes the limitations of today’s optical sorting technologies to drive a step-change improvement in the quality and quantity of recyclate. Moreover, the same information used to drive this advanced sortation in facilities can provide product-specific and location-based disposal instructions via a brand-owned direct-to-consumer digital communication channel accessed via on-pack watermarks or QR codes.

In addition to providing the information necessary to power advanced sortation at recycling facilities, Digimarc Recycle captures and provides a holistic view of the post-purchase product journey, unlocking never-before-seen data benefitting stakeholders across the value chain.

Digimarc Recycle is expected to launch soon in France and Canada, with conversations ongoing in other countries around the globe. In addition, Digimarc’s product digitization technology has recently been chosen to guard the integrity of a national deposit-return system (DRS), further extending the power of Digimarc’s technology to promote a more sustainable world.

“We look forward to our continued work with Netto and other retailers and brands to end plastic pollution. The solution begins with a commitment to act. I want to thank Netto Marken-Discount for being a wonderful partner to Digimarc, and to the planet,” McCormack concluded.

About Netto Marken-Discount

Netto Marken-Discount is one of the leading companies in food retailing with more than 4,300 stores, around 84,000 employees, 21 million customers every week and a turnover of 15.8 billion euros. With around 5,000 articles and a focus on fresh products, Netto Marken-Discount has the largest food assortment in the discount sector. Assuming responsibility is part of Netto's corporate culture - the retailer focuses on four key areas: Social commitment, fair cooperation, careful use of resources and aligning the purchasing strategy with sustainability aspects. Netto is a partner of WWF Germany: in addition to expanding and promoting its more sustainable private label range, Netto is also working to further reduce its own ecological footprint by focusing on climate protection, biodiversity, fresh water and resources.

About Digimarc

Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ: DMRC) is a global leader in product digitization. A pioneer in digital watermarks, Digimarc connects every physical and digital item to a digital twin that captures product data, records events and interactions, and enables powerful new automations. Trusted to deter counterfeiting of global currency for more than 20 years, Digimarc is also recognized for ensuring product authenticity, improving plastics recycling, and more, with a commitment to promoting a prosperous, safer, and more sustainable world. See more at Digimarc.com.

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