A Kent-based maker of satellite ground equipment, from the antennas' receiving electronics (LNBs) to waveguides, founded in 1985 by Roger and Helen Pannell.
Global Invacom designs and makes equipment for the ground end of satellite links. Its first products were multiswitches, which share a satellite signal between several receivers, and it went on to make LNBs, the small units on a satellite dish that turn weak satellite signals into something a receiver can use. The group's own page says it offers complete solutions for any satellite communications requirement, covering antennas, electronics, mounts and positioning systems, and waveguides. Markets listed on the company's history page include satellite communications, Earth observation, defence and satellite television.
Roger Pannell founded the company in 1985 as Global Communications, and he and his wife Helen made and sold products from the garage of their family home. It moved to Burnham-on-Crouch in 1987 and to Althorne in 1990, and in 1998 it designed the tvLINK product for BSkyB. In 2008 Global Communications (UK) Ltd and Invacom merged to form Global Invacom, and in 2019 it acquired the assets and design team of Apexsat, which builds steerable antennas. Its stated mission is to develop technology that improves satellite ground equipment and helps people around the world stay connected.
The company's present UK address is the Canterbury Innovation Centre, University Road, Canterbury, Kent. The ADS Group lists a separate Global Invacom Ltd site at John Roberts Business Park in Whitstable, near Canterbury, and says it has served government, defence and satellite ground equipment markets for over thirty years. The group page adds Global Invacom Waveguide, a UK business in Heathfield, Newton Abbot, in Devon, which makes waveguides, the metal tubes that carry radio signals, for defence, medical and communications uses. Most production was moved to the Far East from 1999, so the UK work centres on design, engineering, defence products and specialist manufacture. The group also has companies in Israel and China.
The pages describe a founder-led family business that grew into an international group, and the history page names Tony Taylor as managing director from 2006 and says four managers bought 38 per cent of the business in 1999. ADS Group lists Craig Bowley as chief commercial officer. The ADS entry reports quality certifications including ISO 9001, ISO 14001, Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus, which show a business that works to defence standards. We found no culture statement from the company.
Jobs at a firm like this include RF and electronics engineers, mechanical designers, test engineers, production and quality staff, supply-chain and commercial colleagues. Because it sells into defence and satellite markets, there are also roles in compliance and customer support. Electronics, physics, engineering and manufacturing studies lead in, as do apprenticeships and technician routes in engineering generally. The company's website is the place to see what is open.
Website: globalinvacom.com
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