OVERALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
SPONSORED BY VERISONA LAW WINNER: BAE SYSTEMS
A DEFENCE firm with a proud heritage supporting the Royal Navy at Portsmouth Naval Base was named Overall Business of the Year.
BAE Systems was named Large Business of the Year – and then went on to be named Overall Business of the Year, picked by the judges out of the other winners.
David Mitchard, managing director of BAE Systems maritime services, said: ‘I’m surprised to win as there were a lot of really great candidates.
‘I’m absolutely delighted.
It’s been an exceptional year in challenging circumstances. What our employees have achieved is outstanding.’
BAE Systems’ advanced defence technology protects people and national security, and keeps critical information and infrastructure secure.
Its maritime services business, headquartered in Portsmouth, is a £650m portfolio business. It operates major sites at Broad Oak in Hilsea and Cowes as well as at Portsmouth Naval Base.
In addition to its maritime services business, the combat systems team operates out of Broad Oak and at the maritime integration and support centre on Portsdown Hill.
Between the two businesses, BAE Systems employs some 3,700 people in the Solent area.
Its name is synonymous with the Royal Navy and it has recently won contracts worth £1.3bn to continue to maintain and support warships, docks and other base infrastructure at Portsmouth Naval Base – which the judges said was a testament to its excellent work for the Royal Navy in Portsmouth.
It is proud of the key role it has played over the last 20 years in manufacturing and supporting the ships, submarines, combat systems, radar and torpedoes that have helped to make the Carrier Strike Group’s deployment this May a reality.
The BAE Systems teams in Portsmouth have prepared the nation’s flagship aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, Type 45 destroyers HMS Defender and HMS Diamond and the
Type 23 Frigate HMS Kent for the internationally important deployment.
They have also developed and manufactured the Sampson, Artisan and long range radars, and the Spearfish and Sting Ray torpedoes that protect the fleet and the combat systems which provide the carrier group’s ‘eyes, ears and brains’.
David added: ‘In the coming year we will be implementing the £1.3bn defence contract extension.
‘We will be mobilising the workforce and will be taking on more graduates, apprentices and engineers to make sure we can deliver.’