The sites include the production facilities for UK personal cheques, export stamps, UK vouchers and coin bags. Equipment from Byfleet required to support domestic stamp production will be transferred to its Dunstable site.

As part of the review, its Security Paper and Print division now comprises banknote printing and papermaking operations, its Tapes and Holographics activities, as well as its Security Products division.

The news came as the group announced a pre-tax profit of 19.7m, excluding exceptional items and goodwill amortisation of 19.6m, for the six months to 27 September. However, this compared favourably to an 800,000 pre-tax loss for the last half. Turnover was also up 7.6% to 290.1m.

The Security Paper and Print division performed well in the first half, with operating profits up 1.6m to 14.3m, offsetting tough trading experienced in other parts of the group. This was, in part, due to the Iraq banknote contract announced in July (PrintWeek, 10 July).

Chairman Sir Brandon Gough said the improvement in underlying performance reflected De La Rues cost-reduction programmes and the strength of its Currency operations. Our success in winning the exceptional Iraq banknote contract and the commencement of bulk deliveries against challenging timescales is further testament to the power of the De La Rue brand, he added.

Although the firm would not put a figure on the Iraq contract, analysts had suggested it was in the region of 70m.