John previously spent two years at legal tech consultancy SYKE – where he was VP Business Development and helped the company scale its business and double in size.

An award-winning Banbridge based start-up, ubloquity specialises in reducing food fraud, tackling food waste and removing inefficiencies within food value supply chains.

It does this by utilising blockchain technology, digital asset identification and validation. Its aim is to revolutionise how food is produced, manufactured, shipped and distributed, providing transparency and visibility from farm to fork.

Rob Chester, ubloquity’s CEO said: “We’re building a world-class team who will help take the company to the next level. Securing John’s services is a real coup. He has an amazing track-record at blue chip companies like GE Capital where he was head of operations in their Global Finance division, he ran factories for Heinz, Coca-Cola, and Nestle. And at Asda he headed up the transport and network strategy team before becoming Vice President for Store Proposition.”

John joins the ubloquity senior leadership team with immediate effect, working alongside colleagues who are based across the UK and Europe.

Kieran Kelly, ubloquity’s co-founder and CTO added: “Although our roots are here in Northern Ireland, we are already an international operation. Our IT board director Alin is based in Romania and manages a team of engineers there and in the Czech Republic. John will be situated in Yorkshire, England alongside our CEO Rob. However, with his support, we intend to open a presence in the coming weeks in the Republic of Ireland to help drive forward our frictionless border businesses.”

ubloquity was founded in July 2021, following a successful round of seed funding where it secured more than £2m from early investors. It currently employs 12 people and has a projected strong year one revenue.

John said: “It’s great to be part of such an exciting blockchain-enabled company. It has high growth potential, and products with multiple use cases and applications. My role is to maximise that potential, while applying the rigour you’d expect at a more established company. We’ll continue to have the agility of a start-up but we’ll adopt the mindset of a market-leader.”

ubloquity was initially established as a food provenance platform, enabling its customers to trace their products back to the most relevant start point in the supply chain. It has since diversified, serving multiple sectors across the value chain from logistics providers to livestock producers, retailers to regulators, pharmaceutical firms to food and beverage companies. Its platform was built on blockchain to enable NI farmers to create a digital twin for each of their cattle that they could register at birth, then track its entire lifecycle.

Kieran added: “We smart-tagged individual beef animals with a DNA/RFID tags linked to the farmer along with a unique geofence created by ubloquity around the boundaries of the farm. This was a revolutionary piece of innovation in the digital identification of animals, attracting attention not only from forward-thinking farmers but also the industry at large.”

Following Brexit, ubloquity has developed other revenue streams utilising the ubloquity platform to meet specific market needs for manufacturers within NI to transport animal products in and out of the country in a frictionless way.

The post Ubloquity appoints former Asda VP John Buxton as commercial director first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

The company says TruckPass is an effortless, secure solution to getting freight across borders without delays, which can typically be anywhere from 15 minutes to several days.

Border security professionals

Elandbridge is a consortium comprising border security professionals, haulage industry experts and leading IT, communications and systems development specialists. Using intelligent electronic seals, blockchain ledger, GPS tracking, secure facial recognition, IoT technology, enhanced communication systems and specifically-designed applications, Elandbridge says it is providing a proven and deliverable solution for frictionless borders. The innovative solution is thought to be the only technology which fully meets government, customs, and security needs of the regulators and all the compliance requirements of the haulage industry.

Logistics problems

Charles Le Gallais CBE, CEO and Founder of Elandbridge, said: “The logistics problems in Northern Ireland are not going to go away unless something changes, and I believe TruckPass is that change. We have been developing the solution for some time now and have benefited greatly from collaboration with and input from major haulage businesses, both in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and across Europe. We are also grateful to Government departments, HMRC and Border Control for the constructive engagement and discussions regarding what they need from a technical customs / transport system. We have developed real-world technology providing a real-world solution for now and for the future.”

The Challenge

In the simplest terms, the challenge lies in the control of goods being transported between two countries where there are import/export tariffs, border controls and the requirement to remove or reduce delays and the related additional costs on consignments to as little as possible.

How does TruckPass work?

The system combines four existing technologies: an Electronic Seal – developed and being used by the airline sector, Blockchain, secure messaging app which uses biometric face recognition – developed and being trialled and Global Positioning Systems (GPS).

Elandbridge has a working prototype system, and the concept has been proven and demonstrated to hauliers in both the UK mainland and Northern Ireland; a desktop version has also been presented to government officials closely involved with the development of post-Brexit borders.

The post Truckpass technology to enable frictionless, digital border solution for GB-NI and RoI first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.