A strategic partnership has been struck between De La Rue and a Canadian partner to migrate manufacturing of the British passport back to the UK. De La Rue is a British company that produces secure digital and physical protections for identities, selling their services to governments and businesses. They are trying to win back a contract they lost 8 years ago to print the security document. The security printing specialists supply the Bank of England banknotes, intricately designed with state-of-the-art security features and holograms. They have agreed to join forces with the Canadian Bank Note Company (CBN) in a solid bid for the British passports contract valued at £360 million.
Securing the government-issued tender would be a major business deal for De La Rue who missed out on the tender back in 2018 to Gemalto, a French-Dutch rival. This knocked the company into a difficult financial situation and job losses, amid political and economic uncertainty around Brexit. However, if they recovered the contract, De La Rue promised to create hundreds of “highly skilled” jobs.
The tender to manufacture the next series of British passports for 12 years from 2027 is due be issued later this year.
