Manufacturing Digital profiles Airborne Systems, a company we last visited 12 months ago, and learns that business is up, despite the downturn in the industry
Written by Ian Armitage & Produced by Alex Barron
Parachute-maker Airborne Systems Europe is defying the recession. Demand for its products has not dropped despite the global downturn and it has even been recruiting new UK workers at a time when most manufacturers are scaling down production. The reason? It produces the canopies - and makes other vital parachute parts - for parachutes used by armed forces all over the world. Importantly, its fortunes are geared more towards military doctrine and operations and less to the general economics of the moment.
“We have had much success in the last year or so in winning orders,” Chris Rowe, Managing Director of Bridgend-based Airborne Systems Europe (ASE) tells Manufacturing Digital, a year after we last spoke. “Turnover has increased, the company now has more business, and we are doing well.
“Our position in this industry in the UK is that we are the only supplier, really, in a lot of what we do,” he adds.
Airborne Systems is in high demand. Its biggest customer is the UK Ministry of Defence, whose operations in Afghanistan require supply dropping equipment. “A lot of the growth has been driven by MoD operational imperatives, if you like,” says Rowe. “Of course, these can and do change, so things may get more difficult in future; for the moment, however, this is working in our favour.”
ASE’s successes certainly make a refreshing change from the numerous tales of job cuts and business closures which have dominated the headlines almost daily since Christmas. “We are a success,” continues Rowe. “But, so you can see just what we have achieved, let me set the scene a little better. Airborne Systems Group is the largest parachute manufacturer in the world, also having two major factories in the US, and sets the industry standard for innovation, quality and reliability. Our UK factories employ around 400 people, making and supporting parachutes primarily for the British military. About 20 percent of our work is for overseas forces and we are looking to increase that in the future.
“In the financial year which ended in 2007, our turnover was under £20 million ,” he adds. “That’s the European business. And then last year, it was almost £30 million. We need to keep working hard to maintain this increase.”
Formerly Irvin-GQ, ASE’s products include parachutes for airborne troops and those used to drop cargo, and the company is actively engaged in the development of parachutes and related equipment for future requirements.
SITTING PRETTY
It’s been well over 12 months since Manufacturing Digital last spoke with Rowe, who “boarded” the Airborne Systems management team three years ago as Managing Director of the European operation and has made his mark on a company whose turnover has seen a huge increase, a success that he attributes to the structured actions adopted by the company as well as the increase in front line operational needs.
“Our success isn’t one factor or another – it is a combination,” he says. “For instance, we have done much work in tightening up the basics of the business and have got the costing and the pricing processes properly under control.
“We’ve also got better shop floor management and more formal strategies in place,” adds Rowe, who jokingly commented that he “wished” the success at the firm was down to him, solely. However, he says, it was due to “a large degree the result of hard work” by a high-performing management team.
“At the manufacturing level, we have worked together to bring in ‘common sense initiatives’,” he continues. “And this has worked wonders. In the last few years, we have been working on becoming more flexible too and have introduced a structured training programme for our staff. What we’ve tried to do here is to keep a core workforce of well-trained, flexible people. As a result, in the market Airborne Systems is the world leader and, certainly in the UK, there isn’t another company like us,” says Rowe.
UNIQUE
Talking about the firm’s current projects, Rowe says ASE “looks after” all the UK’s parachute inventory and “has a long-term” contract with the MoD. “Basically we receive them in, we inspect them, we repair them, clean them, pack them and have them available when the customer wants them, so it’s a total service,” says Rowe, who highlighted this as a capability unique to the UK.
However, he is keen to emphasise that Airborne Systems is a textile engineering firm which not only manufactures parachutes but also related military products, like naval decoys.
“If somebody fires a missile at a naval vessel, the missile normally has a radar on board which tracks the ship that it’s fired at. Basically we’ve got a system whereby they fire over the side a structure, that then inflates within seconds and floats behind the ship; it actually seduces the missile away from the ship because it looks like a very big target,” he says.
“This is a good example of our core competencies in building highly compact packages which are precisely and reliably deployed, for example a parachute or in this case a decoy." These naval decoys are set to become the company’s next growth area, along with aerial delivery platforms used to deliver boats onto water and equipment onto land.
“These are major growth areas,” says Rowe.
FACTS AT A GLANCE
NAME: Airborne Systems
Managing Director: Chris Rowe
Operations: The design and manufacture of parachute products and provider of engineering services
EMPLOYEES: 850
REVENUE: £27 million
www.airborne-sys.com
View Digital Corporate Profile of Airborne Systems in Manufacturing Digital October 2009