BANKNOTE printer De La Rue is to cut up to 350 staff as it closes a factory in order to improve efficiency.

The group, which employs about 150 staff in the North-East - at its Team Valley cash systems division - is to shut a site in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, which prints products such as stamps, travellers cheques and gift vouchers.

Consultation with the workforce is taking place, and some staff may be moved to other locations.

Chief executive Ian Much said: "This restructuring programme will result in a cost base which better matches the level of sales and will produce a leaner, fitter business for the future.

"The proposed closure of our High Wycombe site, while painful, is necessary to reduce capacity and deliver the required operational improvements to get the business on a firmer footing for the future."

The closure is part of a restructuring of De La Rue's security products division, following a review announced in May.

De La Rue, which has 3,000 staff in the UK, said it had identified significant duplication across the businesses and would reorganise the manufacturing base to create "highly focused centres of excellence".

Its factory in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, will focus on cheques, a site at Dunstable, Bedfordshire on vouchers, while Dulles, in the US, will print travellers cheques.

The group said closure of the High Wycombe site would result in lower production capacity overall, but it would still be able to accommodate existing sales requirements for the foreseeable future.

To boost the security business, De La Rue is buying House of Questa, based in Byfleet, Surrey.

House of Questa, which employs 75, prints postage stamps and motor vehicle tax discs.

A spokesman for De La Rue said there would hopefully be some staff transferred from High Wycombe to Byfleet.

The restructuring plans, however, came as De La Rue warned figures for the full year would fall "significantly below" last year.

The group said it had seen continued poor trading by some parts of its business, which would hit first-half figures, for the six months to September 28.