De La Rue appoints new boss

TROUBLED De La Rue has finally appointed a chief executive – nearly two years after losing the contract to make Britain’s blue post-Brexit passports.

Clive Vacher, hailed by the banknote printer as a turnaround specialist, joined yesterday at a tricky time for the business.

After a French rival beat it to the passport deal in 2017, it announced a string of profit warnings. The most recent came in May, when former boss Martin Sutherland announced his departure as the company flagged an £18m charge related to Venezuela’s failure to pay its bills. Since then, the Serious Fraud Office has launched a probe relating to suspected corruption in De La Rue’s South Sudan business.

De La Rue is banking on Vacher, the 49-year- old former boss of Canada-listed electronic chip company Dynex Power, to turn around its fortunes.

He led Dynex, which manufactures its products in Lincoln, in its sale to Chinese company Zhuzhou CRRC Times Electric earlier this year.

Kevin Loosemore, De La Rue’s chairman, said: ‘[Vacher’s] experience of business turnarounds will be invaluable to us as we work to address the challenges we face as a business.’

De La Rue is trying to split in two – a currency arm and an authentication arm, focusing on security features for items ranging from ID cards to regulated products such as cigarettes.

Sutherland had been heavily criticised by shareholders for being largely ineffective during his five years at the helm. Activist investor Crystal Amber pressured him to step down.