AN HISTORIC paper maker has announced it will be ‘winding down’ its business in Hampshire as its bank note printing contract has come to an end.

Portals, which has been printing banknotes and security paper for more than 300 years, opened its Overton Mill site in 1922.

Portals founder Henry Portal set up a paper mill at Bere Mill, on the River Test between Overton and Whitchurch, in 1712.

Its largest contract has been with Basingstoke-based company De La Rue, which designs and prints banknotes, for which it produces the paper. 

It employs 300 people at its 30 acre Overton site, printing circa-14,000 tonnes of banknote paper a year. 

However, the company has now said that, due to rising costs and the ongoing effects of the pandemic, its business in Overton is ‘no longer viable’.

In a statement, a Portals spokesperson said: “Following the global pandemic and other recent world events we have, however, seen a significant adverse impact on our banknote paper business. 

“It is also clear that the change in the strategy of our largest customer, De La Rue plc, and the rising input costs specifically of energy, all in the context of the highly price competitive banknote paper marketplace in which we operate, means that our banknote paper business at Overton is no longer viable.”

You can read the full story and reaction in this week's paper. Also in this week's edition:

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  • PLUS: Two pages of YOUR letters
  • PICTURES: Pupils say goodbye to primary school
  • An eight-page puzzle special
  • Entertainment news
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