THE Prince of Wales official-ly opened the new headquarters for Pascall Electronics on the Isle of Wight.

The new 35,000 sq ft design centre is now home to all departments including research and development, design, manufacturing and administration.

Managing director David Brannock said the move to larger premises followed several years of growth at the company, which supplies specialist elelctronic produts to major telecommunications, defence and avionics companies worldwide.

"I am delighted His Royal Highness opened our new headquarters,'' he said. "Pascall is an excellent example of the type of company which will lead the UK into the next century - a technology-led company supplying high quality specialist equipment throughout the world and generating millions of pounds of high value export business.''

The Ryde-based company was set up in 1977 and currently employs 167 at the new offices on the Westridge Business Park.

Half of its orders are for the aerospace industry with 80 per cent of work heading to overseas markets.

Mr Brannock said that major customers include Rockwell Collins, Sony Transcom and Marconi.

It is the 19th largest employer on the Isle of Wight and focuses heavily on recruiting locally and using local services and products wherever possible.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.