In the money... boss of crisis-hit banknote firm heads off with £5million
BANKNOTE printer De La Rue, which is fighting for survival, has come under fire for paying its former boss nearly £5million.
Martin Sutherland received £4.8million in pay for running the company since 2014 before stepping down in May after the first of three profit warnings which have pushed the company close to collapse.
The crisis at the company follows the loss last year of a key £400million contract to manufacture Britain’s new blue post-Brexit passports, which will now be made by Franco-Dutch rival Gemalto.
On Tuesday, De La Rue warned that it could go bust if its turnaround plan fails.
The company – based in Basingstoke, Hampshire – said there was a ‘material uncertainty that casts significant doubt on the group’s ability to operate as a going concern’. The announcement caused the shares to dive 20 per cent. Up to 2,500 jobs are at risk.
Former chief executive Sutherland, who has been blamed for the loss of the British passport contract and for failing to turn the company around while overseeing hundreds of job cuts, pocketed £4.8 million between 2014 and October this year, when he left the company.
That sum includes a £50,000 payoff which has been criticised as a ‘reward for failure’.
Richard Bernstein, who runs the Crystal Amber investment firm which has a 7.1 per cent stake in De La Rue, has been a vocal critic of former management.
Last night, he said: ‘There is something very wrong with a system that rewards failure in this way. The £50,000 payment from De La Rue – approved by former chairman Philip Rogerson – to help him find a new job adds insult to injury. This at a time of job losses at its Gateshead factory.’
Louisa Bull, national officer at union Unite, which is due to hold talks with new chief executive Clive Vacher, said she was ‘outraged’. She added: ‘I’ve never known a company to be in so much disarray at the board level as they have been this year.’
The company prints banknotes for the Bank of England, which is understood to have a contingency stock of notes that would last about six months in the event of a collapse, giving it time to find an alternative supplier.
De La Rue declined to comment.