What Happened Later to the Mill?

One of the most confusing events regarding the business of producing banknote paper and printing banknotes in Tumba took place starting in December 2017. That is when the news came that Crane Co (a global company engaged in the manufacture of a wide range of high-tech industrial products) had signed a purchase agreement in which it acquired Crane Currency from the private equity firm Lindsay Goldberg, members of the Crane family and other shareholders for a total of USD 800 million.

One of the areas in which Crane Co was already active was the manufacture of technical payment-related devices, such as banknote and coin counting machines. Despite the similarity of the names of the two companies, there was no link between them prior to the takeover. The sale was completed and closed in 2018.

In May 2018, Crane Currency decided to close the banknote printing works at the end of 2018/2019. Despite major efforts to increase efficiency, the prospects of successfully competing were found to be slim, and all new orders were subsequently sent to the printing works in Malta.

For the Swedish Riksbank, this meant that the bank had to look for someone else who could print Swedish banknotes. These had to be printed either in northern or central Europe, so having Swedish banknotes printed in Malta was never an option. The contract to print Swedish banknotes was won by the British company De La Rue, and the contract runs until 2022 with an extension.

Starting with the decision to discontinue the production of paper for the civilian market, and then the decision to close down the banknote printing works, it can be said that the business is back to where it was in January 1759 when the first banknote paper was approved.

Now, like then, only banknote paper is produced in Tumba.