De La Rue Wins Queen’s Award For Innovation
April 30th, 2007
De La Rue has won a Queen's Award for Innovation for its StarChrome® banknote thread. This is the eleventh Queen's Award the Company has received since its first in 1966.
StarChrome is one of De La Rue Currency's most successful authentication features and is a wide security thread in the paper that exhibits a distinctive colour changing effect as the note is tilted. The clear and easily explained visual effect has resulted in a rapid and widespread adoption of the feature by customers for both unprinted paper and printed banknotes.
The Awards, which were graciously approved by Her Majesty The Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister, recognise and reward outstanding achievement by UK companies. The Innovation category is for companies that have demonstrated commercial success through innovative products or services. This year just 40 awards have been given to over 260 entrants in this category.
Commenting on the award, Leo Quinn, Chief Executive of De La Rue plc said:
We are delighted to receive this award and I would like to congratulate all the members of the multi-disciplinary team at De La Rue Currency who were involved in the development of this innovative and highly successful banknote feature.
Innovation is the life blood of De La Rue's business. From authentication features like StarChrome, which enable our customers to stay two steps ahead of the counterfeiter, to leading edge cash handling solutions which deliver the latest in note detection and fitness sorting technology, innovation is in everything that we do. 2006/2007 has underlined this dedication with one of our most successful years ever for the launch of new products and the introduction of authentication features to the market.
The presentation of the award will be made by Her Majesty the Queen's Lord Lieutenant for Hampshire Mrs Mary Fagan JP, later in the year.
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