Bank-note maker De La Rue profits up 2% as company diversifies

UK bank-note printer De La Rue has announced a 2% growth in revenue to £461.7m for the 2016-17 financial year, an increase of £7.2m over the previous year.

The Basingstoke-based company, which has offices or manufacturing bases in more than 25 countries around the world, reported pre-tax profits of £58.2m, an increase of 6%.

De La Rue printed 7.1bn bank notes over the course of the year, but has rationalised its printing facilities in Malta, which it estimates will save roughly £13m in the next financial year.

De La Rue chief cashier Victoria Cleland with the new polymer £5 notes in the De La Rue Debden factory

Founded in Guernsey in 1813, De La Rue is one of Britain’s oldest companies, and currency printing has traditionally been the mainstay of its business. It prints all notes issued by the Bank of England, including the new polymer £5 notes.

Diversifying

A new polymer £10 note featuring Jane Austen will enter circulation in summer 2017 and the new polymer £20 portraying J M W Turner will be introduced by 2020.

De La Rue has also been diversifying into other areas, with its Identity Solutions division, which makes passports and ID cards for a number of countries, growing revenue by 5% over the year and increasing its profit by 37%, while the Product Authentication division grew revenue by 20% and profit by 29%.

Group debt grew from £14.8m to £120.9m following the $25m acquisition of DuPont Authentication.

'Good performance'

Martin Sutherland, chief executive officer of De La Rue, commented: “De La Rue has delivered a good performance this year. We are two years into our five-year strategic plan and have made solid progress against our objectives to diversify the business and improve the quality of earnings.

“Our investment in product management and R&D has seen us introduce six new products into our pipeline, including DLR Analytics, a software solution to help central banks manage their cash-cycle requirements. We are already piloting with 26 countries at launch.”

Mr Sutherland said the acquisition of DuPont Authentication, with its base of global blue-chip customers, strengthened the company’s position in the growing product-authentication market.

“With continuing good momentum in delivering our 2020 strategic plan and a strong 12-month order book of £387m, I am confident that we will deliver on our expectations for the year,” he added.