HRH The Prince Of Wales visited ETL Systems Ltd, a British satellite technology company at its headquarters in Madley, Herefordshire. The visit was to congratulate and commend the company on achieving global success from a rural location.
The visit from HRH The Prince Of Wales included a tour around the production and engineering facilities, meeting the 120 on-site staff and culminated in the unveiling of a commemorative plaque.
Following the unveiling, HRH Prince Charles gave a speech to members of staff, commenting: “What you all do is remarkable and is of enormous importance to Herefordshire and to the country. It is wonderful to see such skilled engineering being applied in this particular field. Clearly you are producing very high quality, high standard equipment which is used to great effect by customers in over 180 countries. Ladies and gentlemen I hope you go from strength to strength.”
The visit is also recognising contributions to the local community, boosting the local economy, providing jobs in the area, whilst also training and developing it’s highly skilled staff. ETL is also a founder sponsor of the future engineering university in Hereford, NMiTE (New Model in Technology and Engineering). Where ETL hopes to source graduates engineering talent in the future.
Before leaving HRH remarked: “ With the arrival of the new engineering university in Herefordshire it will make an even bigger difference to what you are able to do. There is a big black hole in engineering skills to be filled, and NMiTE seems to be an extremely good way to fill those gaps.”
Ian Hilditch, CEO, ETL Systems, commented: “It was a great honour to have HRH visit our facilities. Hopefully we were able to show a glimpse of some technology being produced in amongst the apple orchards of Herefordshire, which is a bit different than what is usually seen around here! We are extremely proud of our heritage as a rural company achieving global success. We have aggressive growth plans over the coming years and we hope that will further help the local economy. This opportunity for the staff to meet HRH has been a great way to recognise their hard work and success with ETL.”
ETL Systems has previously won three Queens Awards for International Trade, and with this visit, marks another royal seal of approval.
