De La Rue: История британской компании по производству банкнот и ценных бумаг

Company based in Basingstoke, England

The company was founded by Thomas de la Rue, who moved from Guernsey to London in 1821 and set up in business as a 'Leghorn' straw hat maker, then as a stationer and printer. In 1831 he secured a Royal Warrant for his business to produce playing cards. In 1855 it started printing postage stamps and in 1860 banknotes. In 1896, the family partnership was converted into a private company. In 1991 the company's name was changed again – this time to De La Rue plc. The company printed banknotes for the Central Bank of Iran during the 1960s. In 1995, the company acquired Portals Limited which had been listed on the London stock market since 1904. For almost 300 years Portals had been one of the leading banknote paper manufacturers in the world, having manufactured banknote paper for the Bank of England since 1724. In 1997, De La Rue acquired Harrison and Sons, the stamp and banknote printers based in High Wycombe. The factory closed permanently in 2003. In early 2002, De La Rue purchased Sequoia Voting Systems, a California based company that was a large provider of electronic voting systems in the United States, from Jefferson Smurfit plc for $23 million. Following the Panama Papers leak, it was revealed that from 2002 until 2010, De La Rue had secretly contracted New Delhi businessman Somendra Khosla to obtain contracts in exchange for a 15% commission. In 2003, the company acquired the Debden based banknote printing operations of the Bank of England. In 2003 and 2004 the company supplied banknotes to Iraq. The company was recognised by Hermann Simon as a role model for other small to medium sized businesses in his book Hidden Champions. The Highest Perfection, a history of De La Rue was published in 2011. Written by Peter Pugh for De La Rue, it covered the years 1712–2003. In 2016, the Cash Handling division (Cash Processing Systems) was sold to Privet Capital. In December 2016, the company announced it had purchased the DuPont Authentication division. In March 2018, the company sold the paper business. De La Rue retained a 10% share in the new business, Portals International Limited. In April 2018, the company decided to appeal against the decision of the British government to manufacture passports in France. It subsequently decided against appealing. In October 2019 the company sold its Identity Solutions business to HID Global for £42m. On 26 July 2019, the Serious Fraud Office opened an investigation into De La Rue plc for suspected corruption in South Sudan. They later decided to close the case. In April 2023, it was announced that chairman Kevin Loosemore was stepping down in May 2023 to "draw a line under recent speculation surrounding the leadership of the company". The firm's board launched a fast track search for a replacement.

De La Rue also produces other secure documents, including Tax stamps.

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

De La Rue developed the first practical fountain pen in 1881. Products were marketed under the "Onoto" brand. Production of fountain pens by De La Rue ceased in Britain in 1958 but continued for a few more years in Australia.

During the 1930s De La Rue created a number of board games. These included a cricket game, Stumpz, which was produced in a number of different editions, and Round The Horn, a game which re created the then annual race of grain laden, square rigged sailing cargo ships from Australia to London.

During the First World War, De La Rue made the Christmas Card included in the Princess Mary Christmas gift box.