Latest News

Astrid Mitchell

2 Dec. 2022

3 min read

De La Rue – Some Progress in Tough Market

De La Rue’s results for the first half of the current financial year – 2022/23 – saw sales and profits fall, along with a reduced overall profit guidance for the full year.

Companies

Astrid Mitchell

2 Dec. 2022

2 min read

Crane Invests in Sustainability

Crane Currency has inaugurated a new filtration system that will reduce water consumption by as much as 500,000 cubic meters per year and remove more cotton fibres for reuse in paper production at its paper mill in Tumba, Sweden.

Companies Sustainability

Astrid Mitchell

2 Dec. 2022

2 min read

De La Rue SBTi Targets Approved

The Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) has approved De La Rue’s near-term science-based emissions reduction target.

Companies Sustainability

Astrid Mitchell

4 Nov. 2022

4 min read

Industry and Consumer Groups Convene to Support Cash

In addition to the industry associations that are advocating for cash, two new initiatives in Europe have demonstrated the scope for campaigns to promote cash acceptance at the country level by harnessing interest groups throughout society.

Central Banks Companies

Astrid Mitchell

4 Nov. 2022

4 min read

From Gold to Blockchain – Casa de Moneda Chile Reinvents Itself for the 21st Century

Despite being the oldest company in Chile (it was founded in 1743), in the last four years the state-owned firm Casa de Moneda Chile has gone ‘from the physical to the cloud’.

Banknotes Companies

Astrid Mitchell

4 Oct. 2022

3 min read

SICPA and UbiQD Partner for Quantum Dot Security

Swiss-based SICPA and New-Mexico nanotechnology company UbiQD have announced an expansion of their partnership to develop security inks based on the latter’s quantum dot technology.

Companies Technology

Astrid Mitchell

1 Aug. 2022

3 min read

Threads and the Value of Substrate-Embedded Security – an Inside View from Louisenthal

Threads have developed into a security arsenal all on their own. But to provide a truly effective defence against the counterfeiter, the technical specification and design must be integrated perfectly.

Companies Substrates, Features

Astrid Mitchell

1 Aug. 2022

7 min read

De La Rue Terminates Agreement with Portals; Latter to Close Banknote Paper Mill

On 26 July, De La Rue announced that it is terminating its ten year supply agreement with Portals Paper five years early, an agreement that formed part of private equity-backed management buyout of the paper maker in 2018.

Companies

Astrid Mitchell

29 June 2022

2 min read

Komori Increases Sales and Returns to Profit

Komori Corporation has published its financial figures for 2021/22, reporting a return to profit and an increase of 22% in consolidated net sales compared to the previous year.

Companies

Astrid Mitchell

29 June 2022

5 min read

A Vision of a Circular Economy for Banknote Waste

Not many people know that Royal Dutch Kusters Engineering (Kusters) used to make fluorescent lamp recycling equipment for the electronics giant Philips, glass recycling for the brewer Heineken and coffee pod recycling for Sara Lee.

Companies Sustainability

Astrid Mitchell

29 June 2022

2 min read

CCL Secure Reduces CO2 Emissions by 26% in UK

CCL Secure has achieved a 26% reduction in carbon emissions per tonne of product at its Wigton site in England since 2018. With the support of sustainability consultants Verco, CCL Secure has reduced manufacturing emissions across all three scopes of greenhouse gases, without the inclusion of carbon offsets and market based instruments.

Companies Sustainability

Astrid Mitchell

29 June 2022

7 min read

War, Energy Crisis, Inflation, Recession, COVID on the Rise – Markets, Unsurprisingly, Tumble

In the December edition of Industry Watch, the focus was on the implications of a new infectious COVID variant, Omicron. In the March edition, the focus switched to the war in Ukraine and the sanctions imposed on Russia and the implications, if the war continued, of a global fuel, food, fertilizer and aluminium crisis. This on top of the shortages of many goods used in manufacturing – a legacy of COVID.

Companies

Astrid Mitchell

1 June 2022

2 min read

Profits Up for De La Rue, Despite Headwinds

De La Rue’s sales fell marginally in 2021/22 – revenue (non IFRS) of £375 million and operating profit of £36.4 million were down 3.3% and 4.5% respectively on the previous year.

Companies

Astrid Mitchell

1 May 2022

1 min read

BP – A New Name in Banknote Paper

BP Security is the new name for the security papermaker in Brazil, the only one in Latin America capable of producing banknote-grade mould made paper, formerly owned by Fedrigoni.

Companies

Astrid Mitchell

1 May 2022

3 min read

G+D Reports One of Best Years in History

Giesecke+Devrient has described 2021 in financial terms as one of the most successful in its history. Sales of €2.38 billion were a 2.8% improvement on the previous year and almost back at the pre-pandemic levels of 2019.

Companies

Astrid Mitchell

1 May 2022

3 min read

Crane – One Becomes Two

Crane Co – the US-based industrial products and processes conglomerate – has announced plans to separate the company into two independent publicly-traded companies.

Companies

Astrid Mitchell

1 May 2022

2 min read

De La Rue Issues Trading Update

De La Rue has issued a trading update in which it said that it expects its full year operating profits to be in line with market expectations (these being based on the average published notes from Investec and Numis Securities). Net debt is expected to be slightly better than market expectations of £75 million.

Companies

Astrid Mitchell

1 May 2022

1 min read

SICPA Names New Campus for Economy of Trust

SICPA has unveiled the name for its new campus in Lausanne – unlimitrust. Formerly known as Square One, the aim of the new campus, the first of its kind, is to bring together diverse partners promoting the ‘Economy of Trust’, linking the security of the physical world with its digital counterpart in order to protect goods and people from the vulnerabilities created by today’s global digitalised economy and governance.

Companies

Astrid Mitchell

1 May 2022

2 min read

Mint of Finland Returns to Profit

After several years of losses, the Mint of Finland has reported a significant increase in sales and return to profit for 2021. Consolidated revenue increased by 45% to €83 million, due largely to a good order backlog at the beginning the year.

Coins Companies

Astrid Mitchell

1 April 2022

5 min read

A Mixed Bag in Latest Results from Cash Leaders

Last month, we covered the annual results of five of the major companies in the cash sector – Brinks, Loomis, NCR, Diebold Nixdorf and Crane Co. All bar one reported an increase in both sales and profits. This month is the turn of Spectra Systems, Orell Füssli and Prosegur, where the results are more mixed.

Companies