One worldwide vision

AMAugust19Feature - gardner1
AMAugust19Feature - gardner1

During a busy and bustling Paris Airshow, Mike Richardson took the opportunity to catch up with Gardner Aerospace’s new CEO, Dominic Cartwright and get a handle on the ‘One Gardner’ vision for world domination.

 

One of Europe’s largest suppliers of aerospace detailed parts and sub-assemblies is really starting to make its presence felt in the aerospace manufacturing industry. Not content with appointing Dominic Cartwright as CEO, the company is also making bold strides by expanding its manufacturing footprint in Bengaluru, India, Mielec and Tczew, Poland, in order to support its existing facilities in Derby and Toulouse, as well as opening a brand-new facility in Chengdu, China.

Joining Gardner Aerospace as vice-president of business development in July 2018, Cartwright is looking to treble the size of the business through operational excellence, international expansion and the development of new technologies. Backed by the support of parent company Ligeance Aerospace Technologies (LAT), Cartwright is relishing the opportunity to oversee the next phase of the company’s development and the years ahead promise to be significant.

Committed to becoming a global top-five aerospace detailed parts manufacturer by 2023, Gardner Aerospace is dedicated to providing customers with a much broader product and service offering, which in turn permits the company to further aggregate commodities and increase its capacity in making parts of various complexity and size in ‘best cost’ locations.

Dominic Cartwright, CEO of Gardner Aerospace

“We have exceeded annual revenue levels of $300 million, so our new goal is to become one of the top 75 Aerospace companies by 2023 through acquisition and organic growth,” Cartwright begins. “The purchase of Northern Aerospace last year with its long-bed machining capability really took us to a more strategic place as a supplier in the eyes of our customers, to the point where we are engaged with our principal customer, Airbus, at a much more senior level. Our agreements are longer term and our investments can be recovered over a longer term, enabling us to make even better investments in terms of the manufacturing equipment we are providing.

“However, whilst all this gives us a capability enhancement, we want to be more than an aerostructures components supplier within the Airbus supply chain. Therefore, we need to diversify away from a reliance on Airbus programmes in order to spread the risk – and move into the aero engines and equipment sectors. In order to grow our business from one with a turnover of $300m to $1 billion, we need to follow carefully positioned stepping stones along the way, because we are not going to reach $1bn without some kind of acquisition. We must ensure we are acquisition-ready, and focus on our day job too.”

The Chinese way

Gardner Aerospace has recently completed its new manufacturing facility in Chengdu, China. The 45,000m2 site’s range of capabilities will include long-bed machining; 3- to 5-axis machining; sheet metal fabrication including stretch forming; surface treatments; non-destructive testing; and aerospace welding. A dedicated cell for the manufacture of engine components and sub-assemblies is also included in the development plans for the site which sees more than $125m invested in new equipment and capabilities.

Gardner Aerospace has recently completed its new manufacturing facility in Chengdu, China

Cartwright says the company will look to train local people in-house at the Chengdu facility to ensure everyone follows the ‘One Gardner’ ethos, continuing to deliver the same exceptional standard of work the company is well-known for.

The ‘One Gardner’ model ensures that the highest common standards and systems are applied across the company’s entire business, from France, Poland and the UK to India and China. The concept is central to the company’s consistent product quality, operational delivery and overall performance and is what makes Gardner highly competitive at Transfer of Work programmes. The design of the Chengdu facility, and the methods and management processes adopted within, will therefore match the standards of all Gardner Aerospace’s facilities worldwide.

“The Chengdu facility is about gaining market access in China – we already have in place a local strategy with Airbus and US manufacturers, so now it’s about getting capability in China too. This facility will help us to improve our service and access the Asia-Pacific aerospace industry. This huge operation will allow us to support China’s rapidly developing domestic market for aerospace parts and will also deliver a new option for Western aerospace customers sourcing parts in the region. New and existing customers will enjoy the advantages of our high-quality, low-cost manufacturing with Transfer of Work management still being local to the customer.

“We’re now qualifying Chengdu with processes for existing components and seeding it with wing components to ensure we get all the qualifications in place. Therefore, we have got some capability to go and sell to the rest of the Chinese aviation industry. The facility in China replicates the facilities in Poland, India, Toulouse and Derby. We now have a good business proposition – both from a cost and delivery point of view.

“If this takes us from $300m to $500m over the coming years, then it will be a job well done, but we need to supplement this with some real acquisitions. An acquisition would have to provide benefits from both a geographical and capability point of view. We’re looking at a US footprint and further European footprints in different sectors and we will grow from there.”

The road to growth

Moving on from his previous role in business development, Cartwright is now busy looking at engineering roadmaps in terms of how Gardner can enhance its manufacturing and design engineering capabilities, and how it can process different types of advanced materials – whether that be additive manufacturing or composites – to better service its customers of the future.

“In theory, the metallic-based components market will reduce over time because alternative materials are becoming more readily available,” Cartwright concludes. “We must not forget our day job, which is soft metal machining at incredibly efficient rates, where we have got complete control over every process, i.e. fast turnaround times and fast customer response.

“Our continuing international growth, alongside our manufacturing and engineering expertise, means we are perfectly positioned to offer outstanding advice and support to our customers. We already employ over 2,200 people across our business and that number keeps growing as we extend our operations in locations such as Poland and India. By 2023, we expect to have a global workforce of over 3,300 people.”

www.gardner-aerospace.com

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