UK’s Royal Mint lifted by market turmoil as demand for gold surges

Market turmoil in the course of the previous yr has boosted the efficiency of the Royal Mint as demand for gold cash and treasured metals surged, pushing the UK’s oldest surviving producer’s income to a document excessive.

The wholly state-owned firm has provided the nation’s cash because the reign of King Alfred the Nice greater than 1,100 years in the past. However in its trendy kind it has expanded into gross sales of treasured metals, historic cash, jewelry and luxurious collectibles.

A document variety of buyers hedged their portfolios with bodily treasured metals comparable to gold and silver in the course of the course of its newest monetary yr to the tip of March, pushing the Mint’s pre-tax income to £18mn, up from £12.4mn within the earlier 12 month interval. Revenues rose from £1.1bn to £1.4bn.

Anne Jessopp, chief government, stated that buyers moved into bodily metals as a secure haven from the upheaval in world markets. Income within the US rose by 62 per cent on the again of booming gross sales of treasured metals and commemorative cash.

Jessopp has overseen a modernisation of operations on the Royal Mint that began three years in the past, when the corporate posted a lack of £3mn. The Royal Mint pays a £5mn dividend to the Treasury this yr, up from £3.7mn final time.

Different plans over the following 5 years embrace “opening a brand new manufacturing unit to get well gold from digital waste, increasing into the luxurious market with jewelry, and persevering with to develop our shopper companies internationally”, Jessopp stated.

The brand new plant will use patented chemistry to get well treasured metals from digital waste, producing a whole lot of kilogrammes of treasured metals yearly.

The south Wales-based firm sells treasured metals in numerous varieties, together with British gold cash and stamped bars, in addition to “slivers” of the steel that may be bought by smaller buyers and are saved in its vault.

The group additionally affords an exchange-traded fund, a sort of pooled funding safety that tracks the gold value, which Jessopp stated had been one of the crucial profitable on this planet.

That is the second consecutive yr that the Royal Mint’s revenue has been pushed solely by its shopper dealing with divisions as the usage of cash in circulation declines.

Through the yr, the Mint made 339mn cash for the UK, and 1.5bn cash and blanks for 22 international locations worldwide. To mark the late Queen’s platinum jubilee, it was commissioned by a personal collector to make the biggest coin in its historical past — a 15kg gold piece that took greater than 400 hours to craft. The Mint additionally began an public sale scheme this yr to supply uncommon and historic numismatic artistic endeavors.

The corporate’s monetary efficiency triggered a revenue share cost for workers of £4,943, who additionally obtained a 4.5 per cent annual pay rise.