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Basingstoke-based firm De La Rue has been named as the Bank of England's preferred choice to print plastic banknotes.
The company, which has been printing money for the Bank since 2003, is expected to sign a contract in October to become the printer of the nation's money for the next 10 years from next spring.
Plastic banknotes are scheduled to go into circulation in the UK in 2016, starting with the new £5 note featuring Winston Churchill, followed by the Jane Austen £10 note a year later.
De La Rue, which has been printing banknotes since 1860, moved into polymer notes in 2012, but lost out in a bid to provide the polymer to the Bank this year to the Cumbria-based Innovia. In a statement on Monday, the Bank said De La Rue was its preferred bidder, meaning the company will print the first British plastic notes on Innovia-provided polymer at a secure printing works in Debden, Essex.
Shares in De La Rue, which prints more than 150 national currencies, as well as passports and identity cards in more than 65 countries, rose by 3.6% to 769 pence following the announcement.
The UK is following in the footsteps of Bank of England governor Mark Carney's native Canada by opting for polymer notes. The Bank expects to save £100m a year and has sought to quell environmental concerns about the use of plastic, by saying that the notes will last two and half times longer than the current paper-cotton notes.
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