FLS Aerospace, which bought out TEAM Aer Lingus last year, has orders worth $700 million (£500 million) and is set to recruit more staff, the company's group chairman, Mr Steffen Harpoth, has said.
Mr Harpoth said nobody had been made redundant - the former Aer Lingus aircraft maintenance subsidiary employs more than 1,500 people - and the company plans to expand its workforce. He said he expects the Irish operation to be profitable this year - it made a small profit last year, while still owned by Aer Lingus.
The sale of the subsidiary was completed last December, following tortuous negotiations with staff to buy out their letters of guarantee. Employees received £35,000 each on average to transfer to FLS. Mr Harpoth declined to say how much it had paid for TEAM. He said the company's order book of $700 million includes the 10-year contract with Aer Lingus to service its aircraft. It is understood that the contract is worth around £27 million per year, and will rise to almost £37 million per year within five years.
Mr Harpoth said this contract had been a very important part of the deal. He said in 1994, both FLS and TEAM were companies who were not doing very well. "We were fierce competitors who did not like each other very much," he said.
However, he said, the combination of the two companies now "was a great new leap". He said the FLS goal was to create a global aircraft company "with a local feel". The acquisition of TEAM has pushed FLS into third place in Europe as an independent aircraft maintenance group, he said.
Mr Mike Humphries, FLS sales and marketing director, said the FLS group turnover for last year, when TEAM is included was $3,425 million. The group has three divisions - a building materials, engineering and aerospace division.
Mr Humphries said buying TEAM had given FLS increased sales opportunities with existing customers, and rationalising operations would bring higher profitability. "Plus, it takes an existing competitor out of the market," he said.
He said TEAM had already won $100 million worth of orders this year and expected to win a lot more. Clients include UPS, Virgin, Go, and EasyJet. Mr Bernard Hensey, FLS's Irish managing director, said some of the work came from existing clients extending contracts.
Airline operators - especially low cost airlines such as Ryanair and EasyJet (both of whom are FLS customers) - outsource their maintenance work, a trend which has also emerged among larger airlines. He said the airframe, component and line maintenance market was worth about $28.2 billion, according to industry figures.
He added that FLS was now very well-placed to take advantage of the trend towards outsourcing aircraft maintenance.
