Boeing is to sell its Arnprior, Canada sheet-metal fabrication plant to Consolidated Industries, a forging specialist owned by privately held American Industrial Acquisition. The sale, terms of which have not been disclosed, is part of Boeing Commercial Airplanes’ strategy to focus on final assembly.
The Arnprior, Ontario plant produces electronics racks and other sheet-metal subassemblies for Boeing airliners, with sales last year of $40 million. The deal includes a single-source agreement to continue supplying these parts to Boeing until 2011, says Consolidated president John Wilbur. All 370 employees will be offered jobs, he says.
Consolidated plans to bring new business into the plant, says Wilbur, and intends to approach Airbus as well as companies with which the forgings supplier already has relationships, which include Bell, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Sikorsky and Vought. “Our intent is to grow the business with work other than for Boeing,” he says.
Boeing expects the deal to lower its procurement costs. Commercial Airplanes has sold off fabrication plants in Spokane, Washington and Corinth and Irving, Texas, and in June it completed the $900 million sale of its Wichita/Tulsa division to Canadian investment firm Onex. But the company says it has no plans to sell the Boeing Canada Technology plant in Winnipeg, Alberta, which produces composite structures for Boeing airliners.
Source: Flight International
