De La Rue invests Sh286m to expand Kenyan facility

De La Rue is currently investing KSh 286 million (US$2.9 million) in the expansion of its site in Kenya to strengthen and underpin its local operations. This is part of a long term investment of Ksh 1.4 billion to upgrade the site to become a regional hub for East Africa and the wider continent and a Global Centre of Excellence for De La Rue.

De La Rue’s Marketing Director Robin Mackenzie says the huge investment in expansion of the site will standardise the firm’s global manufacturing footprint and increase its overall flexibility and capability. This has the potential to create more jobs and enhance Kenya’s high tech export capability. There are currently 300 employees on site.

Amongst other new capabilities, the upgrade includes the installation of a state of the art Komori Varnish Press and an increase to the overall factory size. Mackenzie says the Varnish Press will enhance DLR Kenya’s service offering and its technical capability to meet the increasing market demand for more durable varnished banknotes.

The design and construction of the building is being undertaken by local Kenyan companies and all support services were sourced via the strong local Kenyan supply chain.

“This phase of the project is on plan for completion early 2018 and has brought together approximately 100 skilled Kenyan tradesmen from the local area,” he says.

The state of the art new destruction system is being installed at a cost of Ksh51.2million (US$512,000) and will allow De La Rue to securely manage end of life note destruction and disposal in accordance with its world class ISO 14298 and DIN66399 certifications.

It will also enable the firm to offer a complete one stop shop service to existing and potential customers, from design to destruction, in a highly secure environment and manage end of life note destruction and disposal for any banknote securely.

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“The end waste product from the system is used as part of the De La Rue Kenya corporate social responsibility to the local community,” he says.

The Ksh 28.7 million (US$287,000) state of the art air-lock loading bay will also ensure the firm continues to meet its commitment to ISO 14298 and its Intergraf accreditation requirements. Its design and construction is being undertaken by local Kenyan companies is on plan for completion next month.

The DLR Kenya site has been manufacturing for 25 years, and was the first and still is the only site on the African continent to hold the highest level of security accreditation covered by ISO 14298