Feb 3 2010
Logistics and materials processing center under construction, operation of supplier park in northern Germany
ThyssenKrupp is further expanding its internationally successful aerospace business operations. Through its subsidiary ThyssenKrupp Aerospace Germany GmbH, it has concluded with Premium AEROTEC GmbH, a member of the EADS Group and supplier of Airbus, a ten-year contract for complex supply chain services.
As part of the contract, ThyssenKrupp Aerospace, as part of ThyssenKrupp's Business Area Materials Service, is investing some €20 million at Premium AEROTEC's Varel, Friesland, northern Germany, production location. The commitment comprises the construction of an ultramodern 12,500 m² logistics and processing center as well as the operation of a supplier park to be set up, the Aeropark. The complex will provide jobs for over 100 persons.
The key businesses of Premium AEROTEC are structures and manufacturing systems for aircraft production including engineering and development. A key decision criterion for the new partnership in the opinion of the customer was ThyssenKrupp Aerospace's longstanding expertise as integrated materials services provider. The contract covers the pre-machining and final machining of finished parts as well as single-source logistics.
In taking this step, Premium AEROTEC is focusing the hitherto decentralized upstream manufacturing stages at the former Airbus site and concentrating more closely on its own core business. For Premium AEROTEC, the Varel plant is the competence center for the machining of highly complex individual aircraft parts.
"Among the objectives targeted by our customer is for other suppliers of material-related services to move to the new Aeropark in order to secure in the long term the competitiveness and the growth prospects of the plant," explains Claude Weber, Member of the of the business area Material Services Management Team. "ThyssenKrupp Aerospace will operate the Aeropark for ten years at first. In this way we are significantly strengthening our European aerospace business and creating the facilities for additional materials services capacities!"
At the new logistics and processing center, ThyssenKrupp Aerospace will annually saw and mill some 14,000 tonnes of aluminum sheets. Other services embrace in-plant logistics, the identification of parts and components, finishing, incoming materials services, and shipments. Adds Weber: "We will make sure that the materials are shipped out just in time to Premium AEROTEC and its subcontractors."
Likewise satisfied is Uwe Fresenborg, production manager at Premium AEROTEC in Varel who comments: "This contract represents a major milestone for us. We can now focus more closely on our core business and are squarely on track to becoming one of the leading suppliers of aircraft structures over the years ahead!"
Adds Stuart Wilkins, President of ThyssenKrupp Aerospace: "We are delighted that Premium AEROTEC has picked us as its strategic partner. We are convinced that this integration of foremost manufacturers and their suppliers at a single location will help optimize cost structures at both ends. This agreement is the first of its kind in Europe and for our sector a pioneering move."