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De La Rue seals deal to print plastic UK banknotes | De La Rue seals deal to print plastic UK banknotes |
(about 2 hours later) | |
Basingstoke-based firm De La Rue has been named as the Bank of England's preferred choice to print plastic banknotes. | Basingstoke-based firm De La Rue has been named as the Bank of England's preferred choice to print plastic banknotes. |
The company, which has been printing money for the Bank since 2003, is expected to sign a contract in October to become the printer of the nation's money for the next 10 years from next spring. | |
Plastic banknotes are scheduled to go into circulation in the UK in 2016, starting with the new £5 note featuring Winston Churchill, followed by the Jane Austen £10 note a year later. | |
De La Rue, which has been printing banknotes since 1860, moved into polymer notes in 2012, but lost out in a bid to provide the polymer to the Bank this year to the Cumbria-based Innovia. In a statement on Monday, the Bank said De La Rue was its preferred bidder, meaning the company will print the first British plastic notes on Innovia-provided polymer at a secure printing works in Debden, Essex. | |
Shares in De La Rue, which prints more than 150 national currencies, as well as passports and identity cards in more than 65 countries, rose by 3.6% to 769 pence following the announcement. | |
The UK is following in the footsteps of Bank of England governor Mark Carney's native Canada by opting for polymer notes. The Bank expects to save £100m a year and has sought to quell environmental concerns about the use of plastic, by saying that the notes will last two and half times longer than the current paper-cotton notes. |
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