Canadian maintenance repair and overhaul company Exeltech Aerospace is aiming to invest in a southern US or Latin American location by the end of this year.
The eight-year-old publicly listed MRO specialist wants to expand its operations beyond Canada after work begins in July at its new C$21 million ($20.8 million) facility in Montreal, which was to have become operational in April.
The new 12,000m2 (130,000ft2) facility has two 3,720m2 hangars that will be used for the company's heavy maintenance work. This was expanded to include the Embraer ERJ-145 regional jet in April with the announcement of that service's launch customer, Republic Airways. The company already serviced ATR 42s and 72s, Bombardier Dash 8s and Bombardier CRJs.
The new facility, which expands the company's locations to three, with two in Montreal and one in Quebec City, will increase its heavy maintenance capacity by 20%, potentially increasing total annual revenue from C$65 million to C$85 million. Its first Montreal facility, at Pierre Elliot Trudeau International airport, will focus on line maintenance from July.
"We are now as big as we want to be in Canada. We are looking at a couple of options [in investing in the Americas]. We want to [make the investment] quickly. Quickly means this year," says Exeltech chief executive Derek Nice.
Exeltech's financial results for its third fiscal quarter, ending 31 December 2007 but reported in February, show that the company generated C$14.6 million in revenue, 4% up on the same quarter in 2006. But it made a foreign exchange loss of C$429,000.
Nice blames the 17% fall in the US dollar against Canada's currency for the loss and emphasises the company's "Exeltech 2.0 plan" that he says will address the issue of exchange rate fluctuation. In a change to its management the company appointed Sylvain Duval as chief operating officer in April.
Source: Flight International
