The south-east of England is home to an array of aerospace technologies, matched by a willingness to form global business partnerships.
That's the message from the Farnborough Aero-space Consortium (FAC), whose executive director Ross Bradley says the group is at Paris rubbing shoulders with "the best potential partners in the world. If we can't start doing business here, we can't do it anywhere."
A former Eurofighter programme director and managing director with BAE Systems, Bradley joined FAC (Hall 2B, J12) after playing a key role in seeing the new combat aircraft through from early development to full production.
"We try to act as a link between big companies like BAE Systems and the hundreds of small but very capable firms in the region," says Bradley. "We're looking to improve the productivity of the small firms by passing on big-company best practice through training and consultancy. At the same time we are urging the big boys to win efficiencies by working to make their supply chains more effective and by trying to be as agile as small companies can be."
FAC also acts as a single lobbying and public awareness voice for the companies of the south-east, and encourages the smaller enterprises to group together in "virtual companies" when competing for business and delivering programmes."
Long-term
Bradley believes the FAC/SEEDA collaboration is unique at this year's show. "Apart from us and our development agency, we have with us an array of operational companies plus trade promotion agency Trade Partners UK."
Over the next few days Bradley and the British team will be entertaining groups of small/medium enterprises from Kansas in the USA, Italy and Spain with the aim of setting up long-term co-operation.
Source: Flight Daily News
