皇家造币厂的安妮·杰索普：“我们不希望造币厂在我们的监管下停止存在”

九月，在埃菲尔铁塔的阴影下，成群结队的时尚精英涌向法国首都萨克斯大道上的临时时装秀。

Anne Jessopp is the chief executive of the Royal Mint, an institution founded in 886 to make the country’s currency. It forged and minted coins at the Tower of London until 1968, when the company – which is wholly owned by the Treasury – moved to Llantrisant.

安妮·杰索普 (Anne Jessopp) 是皇家造币厂的首席执行官，该机构成立于 886 年，负责铸造该国的货币。该公司一直在伦敦塔锻造和铸造硬币，直到 1968 年，该公司（由财政部全资拥有）搬到了兰特里森特。

The Preston-born economics graduate first joined the Royal Mint in 2009, having worked in the human resources departments of companies including Rolls-Royce, Procter & Gamble, and the RAC. She arrived at the Mint just as the government shelved plans for its sale.

这位出生于普雷斯顿的经济学毕业生于 2009 年首次加入皇家造币厂，曾在劳斯莱斯、宝洁和 RAC 等公司的人力资源部门工作。当她到达造币厂时，政府搁置了其出售计划。

Jessopp was put in charge of supporting its transformation from a government agency into its own limited company, still fully owned by the Treasury. At the time, currency circulation was still its biggest business, accounting for about 58% of revenues and generating £10.7m in pre-tax profits, alongside a smaller commemorative coin division.

杰索普负责支持其从政府机构转型为自己的有限公司，仍由财政部全资拥有。当时，货币流通仍然是其最大的业务，约占收入的 58%，税前利润为 1,070 万英镑，纪念币部门规模较小。

Fast forward 16 years and the circulating coins business last posted a £13m annual loss. It is a symptom of a years-long decline in cash use accelerated by the pandemic, when lockdowns and health fears cut hand-to-hand contact and boosted card payments. While cash is still used by many as a way to stick to budgets, the overall trend has taken its toll. This year, for the first time, Treasury officials did not make an annual order for new coins to be minted for general circulation.

一晃 16 年过去了，流通硬币业务最近一次出现年度亏损 1300 万英镑。这是多年来现金使用量因疫情而加速下降的一个症状，当时封锁和对健康的担忧减少了面对面的接触，并增加了银行卡支付。尽管许多人仍然使用现金来遵守预算，但总体趋势已经造成了损失。今年，财政部官员首次没有下令每年铸造新硬币以供普遍流通。

That has prompted some hard decisions. For one thing, while the Mint will continue supplying UK coins on request, it emerged in April that it was pulling out of the overseas coin supply market.

这促使我们做出一些艰难的决定。一方面，虽然造币厂将继续应要求供应英国硬币，但四月份有消息称，造币厂正在退出海外硬币供应市场。

It is part of a wider diversification strategy that bosses, including Jessopp – who was appointed chief executive in 2018 – have deployed to transform the business. “We didn’t want it to be on our watch that the Royal Mint cease to exist,” she said.

这是包括 2018 年被任命为首席执行官的杰索普在内的老板们为实现业务转型而部署的更广泛多元化战略的一部分。 “我们不希望皇家造币厂不复存在，”她说。

Diversifying the portfolio has meant growing some of its smaller businesses. That has resulted in a fresh international push for its commemorative coin range, and working to expand the appeal of its gold investment arm. The chief executive introduced gold bars starting at £100 and exchange-traded commodities (ETCs) via the London Stock Exchange to draw in more young and female investors.

投资组合多元化意味着发展一些规模较小的业务。这导致国际上对其纪念币系列进行了新的推动，并努力扩大其黄金投资部门的吸引力。这位首席执行官通过伦敦证券交易所推出了起价 100 英镑的金条和交易所交易商品 (ETC)，以吸引更多年轻和女性投资者。

But Jessopp knew more needed to be done. “We had to come up with some new businesses. We put together a team to look at what the opportunities were.” Some ideas – such as a Royal Mint-branded zip wire over the Bristol channel – never left the drawing board. But others stuck.

但杰索普知道还需要做更多的事情。 “我们必须想出一些新业务。我们组建了一个团队来研究机会。”有些想法——例如在布里斯托尔海峡上安装皇家造币厂品牌的高空滑索——从未离开过绘图板。但其他人却卡住了。

This included its 886 jewellery line. Since launching in 2022, with an online store and shopfront in the swanky Burlington Arcade in London, it has cornered a segment of the market interested in sustainable, British-made luxury items. And with bestsellers such as a £2,076 18-carat gold ring and a £345 quarter-sovereign pendant necklace, it has lured big spenders and now boasts celebrity customers including the actor Cate Blanchett, U2’s Adam Clayton and the musician James Blake.

其中包括 886 珠宝系列。自 2022 年推出以来，该公司在伦敦时尚的伯灵顿拱廊设有在线商店和店面，占领了对可持续的英国制造奢侈品感兴趣的市场部分。凭借价值 2,076 英镑的 18 克拉金戒指和价值 345 英镑的四分之一主权吊坠项链等畅销产品，它吸引了大手笔的消费者，现在还拥有包括演员凯特·布兰切特 (Cate Blanchett)、U2 的亚当·克莱顿 (Adam Clayton) 和音乐家詹姆斯·布莱克 (James Blake) 在内的名人顾客。

But a need for a steady supply of sustainable gold also opened the door to another opportunity: precious metals recycling.

但对可持续黄金的稳定供应的需求也打开了另一个机会的大门：贵金属回收。

In August, Jessopp unveiled a “pioneering” factory that recovers gold from electronic waste, creating a more sustainable source of the precious metal for the coin manufacturer’s luxury jewellery line. The factory in south Wales, which has been under construction since March 2022, is designed to extract gold from up to 4,000 tonnes a year of circuit boards sourced in the UK from electronics, including phones, laptops and TVs, with the help of patented new chemistry created by Canadian clean technology firm Excir.

八月，杰索普开设了一家“开创性”工厂，从电子废物中回收黄金，为硬币制造商的豪华珠宝系列创造了更可持续的贵金属来源。这家位于南威尔士的工厂自 2022 年 3 月起开始建设，旨在借助新专利技术，从英国采购的电子产品（包括手机、笔记本电脑和电视）电路板中提取黄金，产量高达 4,000 吨。由加拿大清洁技术公司 Excir 创建的化学物质。

Jessopp says it now has the rights to set up factories with similar recycling programmes in other countries, potentially creating a new export for the 1,000-year-old firm. “We’ve got the international licence to run similar factories right around the world. So we’re working with Excir and another partner to look at what that will look like.

Jessopp 表示，它现在有权在其他国家设立具有类似回收计划的工厂，这有可能为这家拥有 1000 年历史的公司创造新的出口。 “我们拥有在世界各地经营类似工厂的国际许可证。因此，我们正在与 Excir 和另一位合作伙伴合作，看看它会是什么样子。

“We sort of have found ourselves at the forefront of a new industry,” she added.

“我们发现自己处于一个新行业的最前沿，”她补充道。

The hope, ultimately, is that 886 – which is due to break even next year – would make up about 20% of profits in the long-term, with another 20% from the e-waste recycling business.

最终，886 预计将在明年实现盈亏平衡，其长期利润将占 20% 左右，另外 20% 来自电子垃圾回收业务。

“We’re still investing in our new businesses. So this next couple of years, we’re going to still be on that crossover, but we’ve got a trajectory to be really moving forward,” Jessopp says.

“我们仍在投资新业务。因此，在接下来的几年里，我们仍将处于这种交叉状态，但我们已经有了真正向前发展的轨迹，”杰索普说。