ICT and Electronics

Luton is proud to have a number of British and multi-national high technology firms who have chosen the town for key facilities including UK and European headquarters.

These companies design, assemble and sell electronic components, software, web design, defence and aerospace systems, precision controls and autosport systems.

From Luton they supply into British and overseas markets including defence, film and media, automotive, electrical engineering and business services.

The success of these businesses is based on the availability of skilled employees from the high-value business clusters across Luton, London and the South-East.

High technology companies are also drawn to Luton by the presence of other similar businesses, the town’s advanced infrastructure, which provides easy access to customers and suppliers, and the availability of high-quality property and business parks.

Luton also typically offers lower operating costs than London and the rest of the South-East. Salaries are competitive when compared with other locations seeking to attract high technology investment.

Average sector salaries: 

Key businesses in the sector

Luton is home to the UK and European headquarters of many multi-national companies, while other UK and Luton-based firms operate internationally from here.

MTL Instruments: the MTL Instruments Group, headquartered in Luton, is a division of US company Cooper Crouse-Hinds. MTL is a world leader in the development and supply of system infrastructure products and protection equipment to the process industries. Many of the world’s safety-critical processes are monitored, controlled or protected by MTL products, and the Group is distinguished by its global network of sales and support centres.

MTL is now based in state-of-the-art offices on the Butterfield technology park in Luton.

MacDonald Humfrey (Automation) Limited: headquartered in Luton, MacDonald Humfrey is a private company formed in 1988 to provide total turnkey system solutions to core industrial sectors. An extensive portfolio of blue chip companies employs its designs and innovations. MacDonald Humfrey (Products) Limited, also based in Luton, specialises in high technology products within the visual and data communications sector and is now a major supplier of Pick To Light error proofing systems, information display boards, industrial panel PC systems, Fieldbus and high-speed data communication solutions.

Experian Integrated Marketing:  Experian plc, formerly known as CCN Systems, is a global credit information group with operations in 36 countries. The company employs 15,500 people, with corporate headquarters in Dublin and operational headquarters in Nottingham. 

Jaltek Group: headquartered in Luton, the jaltek group is a leading technology solutions organisation, providing a comprehensive range of vertically-integrated design and electronic manufacturing services, innovative wireless communications, telematics (asset and personal telemetry solutions) and bespoke systems development. Jaltek has multiple facilities located in the UK and India. 

Anritsu EMEA Limited: Luton is the headquarters for Europe, the Middle East and Africa for this leading Japanese manufacturer of a wide variety of advanced products including communications, instrumentation, control and manufacturing equipment, and information terminals. In particular, Anritsu is acknowledged as the world leader in measurement systems for ISDN optical communications.

ZF Electronics UK Limited is a successful and established company in the ICT and switches and controls markets which has its offices on Luton’s Airport Executive Park. Originally part of Cherry Electrical Products, a US company founded by design engineer and entrepreneur Walter Cherry back in 1953, it now belongs to German-owned ZF Electronics GmbH who acquired it in 2008, which is in turn part of the €13 billion worldwide corporation ZF Group.

ZF Electronics markets Cherry brand computer input devices to UK businesses and consumers, and the UK office in Luton has achieved major sales in these markets. Cherry products can be found in major UK retailers, banks, building societies, the NHS and airports, and last year its SmartTerminals and SmartCard readers were selected for a rolling programme across the UK’s polices forces.

Other companies in Luton’s high technology sector, and profiled on other pages, include SELEX Galileo, GKN, Honeywell, Gulfstream and Ultra Precision Engineering.