BANK note printer De La Rue, which has a large North-East operation, is planning to make job cuts after suffering a slump in profits.
The 190-year-old company has not unveiled details of where the redundancies might take place as part of a restructuring plan to reduce costs by about £30m over three years.
De La Rue, which employs 180 people at its biggest UK factory in Gateshead, said profits dropped 70 per cent to £33m as full-year revenue fell by 17 per cent to £463.9m. Production problems at its Hampshire paper mill were blamed.
Tim Cobbold, De La Rue chief executive, said: “In essence, the improvement plan will put De La Rue back on track to deliver the returns that shareholders rightly expect.”
Mr Cobbold admitted the moves “inevitably will involve some job losses”, but declined to say how many of De La Rue’s 4,000 employees would be affected.
The firm, which also produces security documents such as passports, said the job losses were part of a plan to lift profits back above £100m.
“Current trading is in line with the board’s expectations with an encouraging order book profile and a good pipeline of opportunities,” Mr Cobbold added.
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