French aircraft manufacturer Daher has completed the purchase from Triumph Group of an aerostructures business in Florida, becoming a direct supplier to major aircraft manufacturers like Boeing and Gulfstream.
Daher, which manufactures TBM 940 and Kodiak 100 turboprops, completed the purchase on 1 July. It had in February revealed its plan to acquire the Florida site but has not disclosed the purchase price.
The deal marks further US expansion by Daher and continues Triumph’s divestitures of various aerostructures businesses.
Daher purchased Triumph’s “metallic and composite aerostructures assembly facility” in Stuart, Florida. It took on the 400 employees who work at the site and folded the operation into its Industry Division, Daher says.
The move “steps up the company’s role as a supplier to North American aerospace customers, including Boeing and Gulfstream”, and reinforces Daher’s “position as a Tier 1 supplier”, it says.
Daher has been expanding its US operations. In 2019, the company acquired US manufacturer Quest Aircraft, which makes the Kodiak 100 short take-off and landing turboprop.
Daher also operates a service site in Pompano Beach, Florida, and a logistics operation in Mobile, Alabama that supports Airbus’s commercial aircraft manufacturing. Daher’s other North American operations include logistics and assembly work in Canada and, in Mexico, a composite parts manufacturing facility and a logistics and services site.
“With the Stuart facility, Daher has reached a critical size that is essential in the aerostructures business, while also marking an important expansion of our overall industrial footprint in North America,” says Daher chief executive Didier Kayat. “This represents a crucial element in Daher’s long-term strategic plan, and further strengthens our ability to meet supply chain demands as the aviation sector continues its rebound.”
The Stuart facility produces “large, complete metallic and composite aerostructures, such as wing and fuselage assemblies”, Daher adds.
Triumph had acquired the Stuart operation with its purchase of Vought Aircraft from The Carlyle Group Industries in 2010. The site has produced products including fuselage assemblies, wings and other components for Boeing jets, according to various sources.
Triumph has been offloading numerous aerostructures divisions in recent years.
In May 2021, it sold three such manufacturing sites to private equity company Arlington Capital Partners, which renamed that business Qarbon Aerospace. Those facilities are in the US states of Texas and Georgia, and in Rayong, Thailand.
In August 2020, Triumph sold a G650 wing supply and engineering business to Gulfstream for proceeds of $52 million.
That followed the October 2019 sale by Triumph of a Nashville structures assembly facility to TECT Aerospace for $58 million. Also that year, Triumph transferred an Embraer E2 component manufacturing contract to AeroSpace Technology of Korea.
