Aerospace firm CFS set to take off after new funding support

A COVENTRY aerospace company rescued from the brink of closure two years ago is focussing of growth after securing new funding.

CFS Aero, based close to Coventry Airport, was bought from liquidators by business partners Jon Freedman and David Newhouse in 2012.

The 25-year-old firm was struggling with its business model of refurbishing and overhauling engines and propellers on a range of aircraft, predominantly on behalf of flying enthusiasts.

But after winning funding of almost £1m through the Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative (AMSCI), with assistance from the Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub, the company is now expecting staff numbers to double to near 70 over the next few years as it looks to expand services and widen its customer base.

“The company has always had highly skilled staff and they were undertaking extremely technical work but the problem was there was very little margin in the previous business model and so it fell on hard times,” said Freedman.

“It couldn’t survive because it was charging less per hour than a car mechanic would and yet the quality checks and paper work that went with it was probably tenfold.”

After buying the firm, the two business partners had intended to strip it of its assets but the more they looked, the more they realised the business could be profitable if restructured.

“We just got sucked in. There was a wonderful skill-base and mentality within the business, the like of which I’d never seen before. Our engineering team do not regard working here as a job, they see it as their vocation,” added Freedman.

“So we decided we would retain the ‘historic’ element to the business but knew we had to push forward into the future if we were to make it a profitable and sustainable company.”

The AMSCI funding has helped to pay for the internal construction work needed for CFS Aero to move into a production line of remanufacturing turbine engines for aircraft.

It is also helping to fund an extensive training programme for the company that is committed to bringing through the next generation of engineers as apprentices.

The Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub has also assisted the company in taking on two graduates from Coventry University and has helped it to join the Coventry and Warwickshire Aerospace Forum (CWAF), which is expanding the firm’s horizons.
Part of the growth plan is to bring in new work which it will then sub-contract out to CWAF members.

“The new work should be much more cost-effective but we want to ensure that we remain true to the company’s roots too. Overhauling engines from old aircraft is one of the best forms of training a new employee can get,” said Freedman.

Craig Humphrey, managing director at the Growth Hub – a clearing house for business, said CFS Aero was precisely the type of firm the hub was designed to support.

He said: “You only have to walk around the company for an hour and you see the history of aviation right before your eyes.

“In some areas, you have 21st Century, state-of-the-art testing facilities and then, in others, it’s almost a museum to our aviation engineering heritage but one steeped in a tradition of excellence.

“The Growth Hub is here to support companies in our advanced engineering and manufacturing sector in any way we can – whether it’s helping to access grant money or sourcing the next generation of staff and we are delighted to have helped what is a truly unique Coventry business.”

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