Not many companies can trace their roots back to the 18th century. That’s when Thomas De La Rue was born. He was a man of vision with a burning ambition, a fiery temper and a passion for monetising his own technological innovations that bordered on obsession. Sounds familiar? The backstory of De La Rue (DLAR) has echoes today.
The family partnership Thomas set up in 1830 soon became the foremost maker of playing cards in Britain. From there, he diversified into printing all sorts of stationery, and before long the company's machines could churn out a million and a half railway tickets a week. He came up with security printing (an adhesive Revenue stamp whose ink would disappear if tampered with); cornered the British postal market; moved into printing banknotes, and expanded abroad.
The partnership became a private company in 1896 and went public in 1921, but by then it had lost its focus on new technologies. The third and fourth De La Rue generation lacked the drive of Thomas and his sons. Their factories had outdated machinery and processes. They lost contracts and had overdiversified into everything from cricket bats to motor cars. Bankruptcy beckoned.