Thales is a modern, agile organisation that makes a substantial contribution to the UK economy. We have a proven history of forming effective and sustainable partnerships with customers across all areas of industry, commerce and government. We enjoy the trust of our customers because of our expertise in complex systems integration, because we are transparent in our dealings with them, and because we are committed to delivering much-needed capabilities – on time and to budget – backed by service provision and through-life support.
Our focus on the delivery of products and continuous service improvement has been rewarded with exceptional performance, achieving double-digit growth in the UK over the past few years. We continue to develop our position as a leading partner to the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), shown by our extraordinary efforts to deliver high-quality Urgent Operational Requirements (UoRs) to protect soldiers, sailors and airmen in Iraq and Afghanistan. We’ve also made progress on significant equipment programmes, including the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers and the Watchkeeper unmanned air system (UAS).
In transportation there are exciting opportunities for us to build our relationship with existing customers, including Transport for London, supporting their efforts to modernise the London Underground and other urban transport networks. Progress of the M-Pact Thales consortium in the design, build and maintenance of Manchester Metrolink’s new light railway lines has grown our UK presence in this market.
Thales UK has a healthy backlog of orders and we have a strong pedigree of successful exports to many countries: our robust performance in international markets means that exports currently account for 25% of revenues at Thales UK. So, for example, in the civil market we continue to have a strong presence in the global full-flight simulator market; in the military market our avionics, optronics, sonar and electronic warfare equipment regularly compete in the global market.
We are grateful for the strong support of the British Government and are encouraged that the Government has signalled a desire to boost British export success, not least in the UK’s high-tech manufacturing sector.
Victor Chavez
CEO Thales UK