Banknote Print

Concepts

• banknotes
• finished banknotes
• alternative banknote substrates
• high quality banknotes
• new banknote designs
• banknote production
• the banknote components
• the banknotes
• its banknotes
• printing

Location

LONDON

Description

This is a multi year contract to print Bank of England banknotes.

Ammendments to Previous Notice

Award Detail

CPV Codes

• 22430000 - Banknotes
• 42900000 - Miscellaneous general and special-purpose machinery
• 50530000 - Repair and maintenance services of machinery

Indicators

• Contract modified due to unforeseen circumstances.

Legal Justification

Forecast banknote printing volumes for the remainder of the contract term have reduced by circa 75% since the contract was entered into in 2014. Unless modified, sterling printing requirements would account for only ~10-20% of the Bank's funded print capacity over the next 5 years. This decrease in printing requirements is due to a number of factors, including: (a) Forecast cash payment volumes decreasing significantly since 2014; (b) The longer circulation life of the current polymer banknotes; and (c) Additional printing undertaken to meet a spike in demand for cash during the Covid pandemic leading to lower future orders now that demand has eased. In addition, the coalescence of urgent printing requirements globally during the Covid pandemic has resulted in a depressed third-party printing market. The circumstances outlined above could not have been foreseen at the time the contract was entered into. Failure to make the highlighted changes to the contract would result in the low utilisation of valuable publicly owned assets, a risk to continuity for a contract of strategic national importance and would not represent value for money in the public interest. Taking into account the impact of the variations, the latest estimate of contract value still sits within the original published range of GBP 200 million and GBP 500 million.