REPORTER TOURS DE LA RUE BANKNOTE PLANT

Journal business editor Graeme Whitfield is given a rare look inside the De La Rue factory in Gateshead to see currency from around the world being printed.

The factory at the very end of Team Valley is in many ways similar to all the other industrial plants that make up the giant business park.

On the walls are whiteboards monitoring productivity and levels of happiness among the staff. The office has a five-a-side football trophy on the shelf and a thank-you card from a local charity. There is even a can of WD40 next to an expensive looking piece of kit to keep it going.

But that is where the similarities end, because this is the De La Rue factory and it is, as the old joke goes, a licence to print money.

It is currently a licence to print money for around 25 countries around the world and though the new plastic fivers and tenners now in circulation are made at De La Rue’s factory in Debden, Essex, it has the ability to print those too (and, indeed, does for banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland).

Before I arrive I have to submit a scan of my passport and sign a non-disclosure agreement, and when I get there my picture is taken again and I have a long wait at the security gate waiting for my clearance. At the entry to the currency centre there is another security check and I have to hand in my mobile phone, all of my money (it didn’t take long) and then put on De La Rue footwear.

It is, to say the least, a bit of a palaver.

But it is also very much worth it. There is something uniquely fascinating, after all, about seeing hundreds of bank notes whizzing off a printer, being cut into single units, checked and boxed up to be flown around the world.

When I leave the plant – passing a production line making this year’s Christmas stamps – I am searched again and the bottoms of my shoes are checked to make sure none of the valuable products have accidentally stuck to them.

Sadly, none do.

To read the complete article, see:
Take a look inside the Gateshead factory where 50 million banknotes are produced each week (http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/business/business-news/take-look-inside-gateshead-factory-13697061)

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