Partner Article

De La Rue improve profits despite revenue dip

North East-based bank note printers, De La Rue, report an improved operating profit in their preliminary statement to the year ended March 30.

Despite an 8% fall in revenue at the security printing and cash specialists, a cost saving plan had boosted profits. The firm plans to increase its cost savings target from £30m to £40m.

Banknote print volumes remained steady at 6.3 billion, as “challenging market conditions” were reflected in a 21% decline in paper volumes.

Tim Cobbold, CEO, commented: “De La Rue delivered an operating profit of £63m, in line with the prior year, despite a much more challenging banknote paper market, which has also had some impact in the printed banknote market.

“Overall order intake reflected the difficult market conditions and an historically low level of overspill volume available to the commercial producers. It was also impacted by the previously announced delay to a number of important orders, some of which have since been received.

“We continue to make good progress in cost reduction as part of the Improvement Plan and are now targeting annual savings of £40m, £10m higher than the original Improvement Plan target.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .