GMV, Europe's seventh biggest employer in the space sector

Eurospace’s 24th facts & figures annual report on Europe’s space industry highlights the role played by GMV over recent years, accounting for 2.06% of full time employment in 2019 out of total of 47,895 workers (+5.7%). From the employment point of view, therefore, GMV is disputing with RUAG the sixth ranking in Europe’s space sector, behind the big firms like Airbus, Thales, Ariane, Leonardo and OHB. Eurospace’s yearly survey is backed by all major space firms and gives a faithful snapshot of the sector.

Although the big three (Airbus, Thales y Leonardo) are directly responsible for nearly half of the total jobs, companies like GMV are generating more and more jobs while adding to Europe’s space skillset. In 2019 Europe’s space sector chalked up total sales worth 8.756 billion euros (a 2.6% increase).

Chart and data © Eurospace

2019 was an exceptional year for GMV’s space business. It managed to up its turnover by 30% on the previous year, topping 140 million euros. Since 2015 GMV has multiplied its business by 2.5 with a corresponding influx of new professionals.

This growth has been across the board too, taking in all business areas, which grew between 15 and 40%, and most of the countries where the company does space business. Worthy of particular note is the striking growth rate in Spain itself, the consolidation of Germany as the second country within the group and the sharp growth rates also recorded by France, Portugal, Romania and the UK.

Among the operations that have contributed to these record figures, pride of place goes to Galileo and Copernicus, OneWeb’s megaconstellation and developments for EUMETSAT, space surveillance and planetary defense and exploration.