Change at the top of De La Rue's authentication business

Andrew Clint, who has led the authentication division at De La Rue for three years, has decided to resign from the company and will be replaced by external hire David Sharratt.

Sharratt joins De La Rue after a spell at US solar tracking company Array Technologies, where he was head of international and credited with growing sales across the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region and Latin America and winning new business.

David Sharratt

He will take on the new role on September 12, when Clint will step down after 13 years at De La Rue.

The change comes amid a turnaround drive at the company, which said earlier this year that despite pandemic-related disruption it had managed to increase adjusted operating profit by 30 per cent to £36 million ($42m), up 20 per cent in its currency business and 44 per cent in authentication.

It warned however that rising costs in its supply chain have made the outlook for the business uncertain. Authentication is the smaller of its businesses, with sales of £90m last year versus £281m for currency, but grew at 16 per cent while currency shrank 2 per cent.

"David is an accomplished executive who will drive further growth and success in authentication." said De La Rue's chief executive Clive Vacher.

"His track record of revenue and margin growth, coupled with substantial international experience across a variety of sectors, means that the division will be in excellent hands for the next phase of its development," he added.

In a LinkedIn post, Clint has pointed to some notable successes during his tenure at the helm of the division, including a doubling in business in three years and bringing software and digital technology to the world of security printing.

"I have long believed that any business needs a driving purpose and in authentication it was to support our customers to secure their revenues and reputations against the global challenge of illicit trade and counterfeit goods," he writes.

"We didn't know then that the world was going to suffer a pandemic or that supply chains would be so disrupted or that war would lead to rampant inflation but the whole team pulled together to weather those storms and we didn't miss any customer deliveries or have any major system outages."

Vacher said Clint played a pivotal role in De La Rue's turnaround plan, and under his leadership the division "exhibited strong growth in revenue and margin, based on De La Rue's proprietary track and trace solutions for governments and brand protection."