Ironically, De La Rue simultaneously announced the acquisition of security gravure printer House of Questa from Canada’s MDC Corporation for £3.2m.
De La Rue also issued its second profits warning of the year, and said its full-year figures would be significantly below last year’s losses in its security products division.
GPMU Chiltern and Thames Valley branch secretary Ian Cummings said closure would be "a bloody disaster. Our members feel shocked and betrayed, with many facing the prospect of long-term unemployment."
Cummings said many of the GPMU’s 315 members at High Wycombe had expected rationalisation, but not closure.
De La Rue’s head of corporate affairs Mark Fearon said: "To remain competitive we have to remain fleet of foot, something we have failed to do in the past."
The House of Questa, based in Byfleet, will be headed by operations director David Hurley, who will report to Chris Crutchley, managing director at De La Rue High Wycombe. Its sales operation will report to Keith Brown, De La Rue’s business director for finance and government. But former Questa managing director Graham Searle has left by "mutual consent".
The reorganisation will also involve additional development of De La Rue’s facilities at Dunstable and Peterborough, and its overseas plants at Dulles in the US and Nairobi, Kenya.
The group will take a £17.7m exceptional charge in the current financial year. It has entered into a 90-day consultation with staff and the GPMU, but Fearon said there would only be "a limited number of opportunities" to transfer to House of Questa or Peterborough and Dunstable.
Questa prints postage stamps and vehicle tax discs, and employs 75 staff, all of which will be retained.
Story by Andy Scott
