A BANKNOTE note printer says hundreds of North-East jobs are safe, despite bosses issuing a profits warning.

De La Rue, which employs 600 staff at sites in Gateshead, expects operating profits to be about £20m less than last year.

Bosses previously predicted the fall, blaming it on a price war across the global banknote printing industry and the strong pound.

Last year, Martin Sutherland, De La Rue’s chief executive, told The Northern Echo the business faced significant challenges, but said he didn’t anticipate any job cuts.

A spokesman for the firm last night reiterated that position.

However, in a trading update covering the period between September 27 2014 and yesterday, the firm revealed it anticipates group operating profit for 2014/15 to be £20m less than underlying operating profits of £89.3m recorded in 2013/14.

Colin Child, the company’s is also standing down as group finance director later this year.

It comes after results for the six months to September 27 saw revenues fall eight per cent to £215m and pre-tax profits drop 36 per cent to £18m.

But Mr Sutherland said: “It is a very challenging market, so we have to offer customers an even wider range of high quality products at the right price.

“Gateshead is our flagship UK site, it has a loyal and skilled workforce, and we don’t envisage making any changes to staff numbers.”

The 201-year-old firm runs two factories on Team Valley, where UK passports and postage stamps, as well as foreign currencies, are made.

The firm’s Gateshead site last is the largest commercial banknote factory in the world, producing about ten million notes a day and up to 3.1 billion a year.

Despite cutting back at other factories, including at its US Dulles plant, De La Rue has invested about £5.5m in Gateshead over the last three years.

A sister site in Debden, Essex, will make a range of plastic notes, including a £5 featuring Sir Winston Churchill, from 2016.