Daher unveiled a new five-year “Take off 2027” strategic plan to “become a large, profitable international company” with four complementary businesses, including aircraft production, manufacturing, manufacturing services and logistics, the company announced Feb. 7.
As part of the plan, Daher has signed an agreement to acquire Paris-based AAA (Assistance Aeronautique et Aerospatiale or Aeronautics and Aerospace Support) following approval by authorities. The deal, announced Feb. 7, is expected to close in May 2023. Terms were not disclosed.
AAA’s business volume, including that of its subsidiaries, totals about $215 million (€200 million). AAA employs 1,900 at its primary aeronautical employment facility in France, along with its teams in Canada, China, Germany, the Philippines, Qatar, and the U.S.
The acquisition will enable Daher to accelerate development of its French and international manufacturing services for civil and defense aeronautics and to better respond to the growing needs of the sector in the context of rising production rates, Daher says.
“We are happy to welcome the AAA teams, whose values are perfectly compatible with Daher’s family and entrepreneurial DNA,” Daher CEO Didier Kayat says. “The development of manufacturing services is an integral part of our new strategic plan and is perfectly aligned with our commitment to support our aeronautical customers in a context that remains complex.”
Goals of Daher’s “Take off 2027” plan include internationalizing the organization, improving the structural profitability of all its businesses and a commitment to innovate and decarbonize.
At the same time, Daher is making its manufacturing services business a separate business sector, alongside aircraft production, manufacturing and logistics.
“The result is a link between the group’s manufacturing and logistics,” the company says. “Capitalizing on the know-how, these business sectors apply the competencies of adaptability, agility and commitment for which Daher is recognized, while strengthening the group’s presence in the aeronautical value chain—and more broadly the manufacturing value chain—along with its proximity to customers.”
Daher plans to improve its economic performance, strengthen its competitiveness in servicing customers, invest in its workforce and strengthen its environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance, the company says.
Its three main challenges include a plan to transform its managerial culture by moving to a results-driven culture, to innovate and decarbonize by envisioning products services and processes for its businesses, and to integrate and develop its acquisitions. This includes duplicating the success of its TBM aircraft for its Kodiak aircraft, while launching a hybrid aircraft. The company also plans to benefit from its Stuart, Florida, factory’s competence to make aerostructure assembly one of the pillars of Daher’s manufacturing.
Daher plans to apply the capabilities of its KVI Composites Group to secure a technological lead in composites and to develop its manufacturing services business with AAA, once the deal is finalized.
Daher recorded 2022 sales of $1.4 billion for its industrial and services businesses, an increase of 15.4% compared to the previous year. The company delivered 73 TBM and Kodiak aircraft in 2022, compared to 68 in 2021, and booked a record number of orders. Production rate activity, in the meantime, rose 16.3%.
Activity in its logistics and services business rose 10.7% in 2022, with an extension of existing contracts, the pursuit of internationalization and new presences established in Germany and Spain.
The crisis in Ukraine, the resumption of inflation, a rise in energy prices, tension in the job market and “persistent fragility” of the aeronautical supply chain complicated day-to-day operations, affected delivery times, costs and profitability, the company says.
