British Pounds going abroad?

The Bank of England has put out a tender of 1 billion Pound for the printing of all its banknotes. This means that De la Rue could lose its contract but also that for the first time in history British Pounds could be printed by a foreign printer. De la Rue has been the printer of Britains notes since 2003.

The new tender is for a 14 year contract: 2015 – 2029. Apart from De la Rue, the tender had been sent to a number of foreign printers. Among them Landqart and Note Printing Australia, a division of the Reserve Bank of Australia. There are a few demands in the tender:

Printing must take place in the Bank’s former facility in Debden, Essex. This facility is now run by De la Rue. If another party wins the contract, the facility with its 200 employees moves to the new owner.
Any bidder must have experience of banknote printing, having printed volumes of at least 500 million notes at a single site in a year within the last three years.

This could be another blow to De la Rue if they lose this contract. The orders from the Bank of England make up for 5% of their annual revenue.

Steven Monday 10 December 2012 at 1:35 pm | ¶ | news