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Specializing in aerospace and defense solutions , IrvinGQ ® is a marketleading £ 50 million global business . Based around parachutes , aerial delivery solutions , and naval decoy systems , the business employs over 250 people in the UK and France and has supplied products of quality and reliability for over 100 years .
As Yehia Zakariya , Vice President of Sales & Marketing , explains , the organization maintains proud traditions set by its predecessors . “ Our legacy can be traced back to Leslie Leroy Irvin ’ s world first freefall parachute jump in 1919 .” His business , the Irvin Airchute Company , eventually merged with another parachute manufacturer called GQ , and following a further acquisition , IrvinGQ ® was created .
“ We started off specifically doing parachutes for a range of applications , and then gradually introduced other aerial delivery systems that are designed to get equipment from the air to the ground safely . We primarily focus on military boats , and land vehicles , but it ’ s not limited to those . We ’ ve also expanded into naval decoy systems , which are passive decoys that are used when a ship is under threat from a missile .” IrvinGQ ® also designs , manufactures , and supplies specialist search and rescue ( SAR ) equipment for military , coastguard , and civilian organizations . “ We provide all the training and maintenance that go with our products , too ,” adds Yehia .
One of the company ’ s strengths is its ability to see gaps in the market , or problems that customers need to solve , and applying its extensive research and development ( R & D ) expertise to create a solution . “ We do all of our own R & D , so we do a lot of product development with our inhouse team of highly skilled engineers .”
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