A Shropshire communications company is carrying out vital work in the world’s disaster zones. Neil Thomas meets the boss Stuart Castell.

Large-scale disaster has been much in the news of late with the earthquake in China coming within days of the Burmese cyclone, causing horrendous loss of life and human misery.

Would you visit such scenes of harrowing devastation? Stuart Castell and his team do.

Stuart runs Castell Satcom Radio from offices in Shrewsbury, though his “patch” is the world. Usually a part of the world where there is large-scale death and danger.

The Asian Tsunami, the Pakistan Earthquake, the war in Iraq – Stuart’s company was on the scene. It has also been busy supplying equipment to established aid workers in Burma.

“There’s been quite a bit of rushing around in the past couple of weeks,” he says.

This specialist independent firm provides and services communications equipment for aid agencies, news crews, oil and gas companies – in fact anyone that works in harsh or remote areas of the world.

It might only have a workforce of eight but Castell Satcom Radio operates on a large stage. It supplies nearly every aid agency in Europe and a few in other parts of the world, including some based in the USA.

Organisations like Oxfam and Save The Children use its services and equipment, which includes handheld and portable voice and data satellite phones and state-of-the-art radio equipment.

The BBC is also a regular customer and hired communications gear for coverage of the gruelling trans-Atlantic race won by television presenter Ben Fogle and double Olympic gold medallist James Cracknell, which raised thousands of pounds for Children in Need in 2006.

It is a colourful – and occasionally hazardous – life for 41-year-old Stuart.

On a recent trip to Nairobi, for instance, he was held up at gunpoint by a police officer for no apparent reason and had to pay a bribe to secure his release.

“It was slightly worrying,” he recalls with a smile and the air of a man no more troubled than if he had been ‘arrested’ by a four year-old with a water pistol in Shrewsbury’s Quarry.

Doubtless this calm derives from bestriding the globe’s hotspots.

Castell Satcom Radio has recently branched out, opening a new office. This one is a far cry, in every sense, from its headquarters amid the period splendour of Dogpole. In Juba, to be precise. There, in the heat and dust of southern Sudan, Castell Satcom Radio has set up offices in a slightly-delapidated bungalow that is, nevertheless, a veritable palace compared to some of the shanty shacks surrounding it.

“Many people don’t seem to have heard of Juba but it is, in fact, the aid capital of the world,” explains Stuart, who is Castell’s managing director.

“Take out all the shops in Shrewsbury town centre and replace them with aid agency offices and you’ll get some idea of what Juba is like. Every major aid agency is represented there, so it is an obvious place for a company like ours to have a base.

“There has been a war in Sudan between north and south that has been going on for 50 years, so some of the poverty in Juba is unbelievable. The conditions in the local hospital are very basic. It was a place where we needed to be, though. However, it has taken a while to find somewhere suitable because every available place has been spoken for until now.”

Company director Chris Yates has been the driving force behind the South Sudan business having spent four months out in Juba setting up the office, which will be run by Paul Wallen with a team of two Kenyans and one Sudanese.

Stuart set up Castell Satcom Radio five years ago, after becoming well-known in the market for supplying satellite and radio equipment to Non-Governmental Organisations worldwide since 1997.

He grew up in the small village of Meifod, near Welshpool, before leaving home at 16 to join the Royal Navy. He signed up for nine years, training as a radio operator which gave him a sound technical base for the business he runs today. On leaving the service he embarked on a career in communications, initially working in London and then Oxford.

“I realised that aid agencies were a growing market and that is how I became involved.”

Not even Stuart, though, realised to what extent that market was growing.

“In our first year we far exceeded our goals. Over the years we have won many tenders making us sole suppliers to numerous organisations which has helped our reputation and business growth immensely.

“We had our best year last year, which is due in part to opening our South Sudan office, and we hope to improve again this year as we are aiming to open further African offices possibly in Democratic Republic of Congo,” says Stuart.

“We are dedicated to the aid market and believe we have a unique understanding of its needs. That means providing the best equipment and service available today with a round-the-clock support service.

“When you are working in some of the most dangerous places in the world, trying to help victims of war or natural disaster, reliable communications equipment is essential.

“We like to think that what we do, as well as being a good business, is playing its part and making a difference.”

The next time a war or disaster brings heart-breaking images of death, homelessness and famine on to your television screens, the chances are that Stuart’s small Shropshire company is playing a vital part in the relief operation.