Aerospace supplier lands $1m US contract

Jason Aldridge and Michelle Connor

A Coventry aerospace supplier has secured a $1m order from a US-based engine manufacturer.

Arrowsmith Engineering, which employs 60 people at its recently extended facility in Bayton Road, is one of the region’s leading aerospace precision component manufacturers.

Its specialisms include precision turning, milling, thread rolling and grinding, providing components in titanium, nimonics, stainless steel, exotic metal and engineering plastics.

It expects the US order to make a major contribution towards its ambition of doubling annual sales to £7m by 2020.

“Our client base is the who’s who of the aerospace sector and the only way we get to supply into these type of businesses is by offering precision components and on time delivery – the latter is at 98% for the last year,” said Arrowsmith managing director Jason Aldridge.

The firm believes the award of the Silver SC21 supply chain standard has been key to winning the latest order.

“This will take the business to a whole new level. We’ve had to employ 12 new people to cope with the increased demand, including three interns, two new apprentices, a quality engineer and six machinists,” said Mr Aldridge.

“SC21 is a significant award in our sector and for us to secure Silver is a fantastic achievement and one that will safeguard and, hopefully, win us new work.”

The company has been working with the Manufacturing Growth Programme since October last year, first with the SC21 application and then, more recently, in a gap analysis for the new AS9100D aerospace quality standard.

It has also assisted the firm in developing a long-term growth strategy and capitalising on international opportunities.

“It’s a very difficult standard to attain and we really benefitted from the expertise and support of MGP in refining our systems,” said Mr Aldridge.

“As an SME, you can sometimes get weighed down with just meeting daily customer requirements and lose track of what could be the bigger picture. That’s why having a specialist from MGP, who has time to look at the overall strategy of the business, can be beneficial.”

MGP growth manager Michelle Connor said: “One of the things we do is getting under the skin of the business we are supporting, identifying the exact support it needs in order to move it to the next stage.

“This is exactly what we did with Arrowsmith and, thanks to the openness of Jason and his management team, we were able to bring in specialists to assist with its SC21 accreditation. The expertise was very targeted, but has the potential to unleash the firm’s potential and generate more than £3.5m of new sales.”

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