De La Rue Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids
De La Rue plc

Type	Public limited company
Traded as	LSE: DLAR
Industry	Printing
Founded	1821; 204 years ago (1821)
Founder	Thomas de la Rue
Headquarters	Basingstoke, Hampshire, England
Key people	Clive Vacher (CEO) Clive Whiley (Chairman)
Revenue	£349.7 million (2023)
Operating income	£(20.3) million (2023)
Net income	£(57.2) million (2023)
Number of employees	2,042 (2023)

De La Rue plc is a British company. Its main office is in Basingstoke, England. The company creates special digital and physical security features. These features protect goods, trade, and identities in 140 countries.

De La Rue sells its products to governments, central banks, and other businesses. Its Authentication part helps with things like government taxes, brand protection, and ID security. This includes special pages for passports. Its Currency part designs and makes banknotes. It also creates secure polymer substrate (a type of plastic for money) and security features for banknotes. These features include security holograms and security threads. De La Rue is listed on the London Stock Exchange. It is the world's largest company that prints banknotes for other countries.

History of De La Rue
What De La Rue Does Today
- Banknotes
- Security Printing
Past Products
Gallery of products produced by De La Rue
See also

History of De La Rue

The company was started by Thomas de la Rue. He moved from Guernsey to London in 1821. He first made straw hats, then became a stationer and printer.

In 1831, he received a special permission from the Royal Family. This allowed his business to make playing cards. In 1855, the company began printing postage stamps. By 1860, they started printing banknotes. The first banknotes De La Rue made were for Mauritius. In 1896, the family business became a private company.

In 1921, the de la Rue family sold their shares in the company. The company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1947. Its name changed a few times over the years. In 1958, it became The De La Rue Company Limited. In 1991, it changed again to De La Rue plc.

In 1965, De La Rue teamed up with an Italian printer named Gualtiero Giori. They formed a company called De La Rue Giori in Switzerland. This company built machines for printing banknotes.

In 1995, De La Rue bought Portals Limited. Portals had been a top maker of banknote paper for almost 300 years. They had made paper for the Bank of England since 1724.

In 1997, De La Rue bought Harrison and Sons. This company printed stamps and banknotes. Its factory closed in 2003.

In 2002, De La Rue bought Sequoia Voting Systems. This was a company in California that provided electronic voting machines in the United States.

In 2003, the company bought the banknote printing operations of the Bank of England in Debden. In 2003 and 2004, De La Rue supplied banknotes to Iraq.

A book called The Highest Perfection was published in 2011. It tells the history of De La Rue from 1712 to 2003.

In 2014, Martin Sutherland became the chief executive officer.

In 2016, the part of the company that handled cash processing was sold. In December 2016, De La Rue bought the Authentication division from DuPont.

In 2018, the company sold its paper business. De La Rue kept a small share in the new company, Portals International Limited. Also in 2018, the company decided not to appeal a decision about British passports being made in France.

In 2019, the company sold its Identity Solutions business.

What De La Rue Does Today

The Bank of England printing facility at Debden, operated under contract by De La Rue, which prints Bank of England banknotes.

Banknotes

De La Rue sells very secure, finished banknotes. They also sell the special plastic material (polymer substrate) and security features for over 69 different national currencies.

Security Printing

De La Rue also makes other secure documents. These include Tax stamps, which are used to show that taxes have been paid.

Past Products

Playing Cards

In 1843, De La Rue's designs for playing cards became the basis for the standard playing card designs we see today. The playing card business was sold in 1969.

Postage Stamps

The company has printed postage stamps for the United Kingdom and some of its former colonies. They also printed stamps for Italy and for the Confederate States of America. The famous Cape of Good Hope triangular stamps were also printed by De La Rue & Co.

Fountain Pens

De La Rue created the first practical fountain pen in 1881. These pens were sold under the "Onoto" brand. De La Rue stopped making fountain pens in Britain in 1958.

Board Games

In the 1930s, De La Rue made several board games. One was a cricket game called Stumpz. Another was Round The Horn, which was about sailing cargo ships from Australia to London.