Zodiac Aerospace is aiming for stable sales in 2016-17 as it concentrates on completing a recovery programme scheduled to end next year.
The interiors and systems supplier has been battling to settle its operations following sharp criticism, notably from Airbus and airline customers, regarding delays in production.
Zodiac says, in its full-year financial statement, that late deliveries in its seat operation are “no longer the primary driver” of cost overruns, following efforts to restore delivery performance.
It says assembly capacity for seats has been increased, with additional sourcing for shells.
Zodiac’s cabin interiors operation has also set up three production lines for Airbus A350 lavatory modules, another area which had been causing problems.
Overrun costs resulted in a full-year operating loss for the aircraft interiors division – which combines the seat and cabin divisions – of €78 million, compared with a previous €16 million profit.
Cabin sales were up by 11.3% to €1.78 billion while seat sales rose 1.3% to €1.39 billion.
Zodiac is aiming to restore its operational performance by the end of the 2016-17 fiscal year, and the company says it is “on track” to achieve this target.
Once the operation is stable, it will turn to recovering margins by removing extra costs and production variance – a measure which, it says, will enable the company to restore double-digit operating income by 2017-18.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
