Emeric d'Arcimoles is chief executive and chairman of Turbomeca and François Courtot is vice-president aero engines. Both met with Gaël Cusenier to talk through the company's successes and ambitions.
Q: How would you describe Turbomeca's current situation?
A: Emeric d'Arcimoles: We have a strong presence in all markets, except the US military.
Our market shares are 50% for civilian engines and 30% for military engines. In 2002, we sold a total of 818 engines, 635 for helicopters and 183 for aircraft, and repaired 1,955 engines, with revenues of €612 million ($720 million) excluding MicroTurbo, a 16% increase over 2001.
Our extended and diversified line of products helps us survive in a very difficult economic context, although we remain very attentive to potential tensions in the business.
Q: How is your services side performing?
A: Emeric d'Arcimoles: We made the very important decision two and a half years ago to improve our services offer in response to our clients' dissatisfaction with them.
Our aim was to be closer to our customers in order to listen to them and to respond more efficiently to their needs. This represented a change for Turbomeca, in terms of quality of support. We started to notice the benefits of this strategy a year and a half ago.
Q: What are the main actions of your services offensive?
A: Emeric d'Arcimoles: We recently opened our 19th TurboSupport Center, in Las Vegas, out of a total of 25 planned. They are manned by field technicians who are available 24h a day for our clients. We constantly re-assess our strategy: early this year, we launched a more structured initiative: MORE, for MOre REsponsive, whose aim is to integrate better our support activities in order to improve them and to facilitate communication.
The launch of our logistics hub at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport will be announced at the show: it will enable us to ship parts to anywhere in the world at very short notice.
Q: How does your "Total Support Package" offer fit in to that perspective?
A: Emeric d'Arcimoles: We signed such a contract with the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) in February this year.
That was the second TSP following one with the French air force. Both clients seem to be happy with our service: we're in negotiations with the MoD for a second contract.
TSP enables us to tailor even better our services to the final customer, thanks to better technical information communication.
For the client, this is a way to shift the hassle of maintenance towards a third-party who, being the manufacturer, has a perfect knowledge of the job.
Q: The USA is not your prime market, but is transatlantic tension affecting Turbomeca? What are your plans there?
A: Emeric d'Arcimoles: Attacks on our business in the USA are made in the open. Some of our potential future contracts, like the Arriel 2 selected by the US Dauphin Coast Guards, may be jeopardised.
However, we are confident our market share will improve and we are working towards that goal: Turbomeca Engines, based in Dallas, TX, will soon be used as a partial assembly line for the Arriel engines, and I am sure that will play a role in our penetration there.
Q: What's the state of play with the Arrius engine family?
A: Franáois Courtot: We have finally launched the Arrius 2B2 engine on the Eurocopter EC135, after getting certification in July last year. With two-thirds of the market share for that type of helicopter (P&W has the remaining third) we are obviously very satisfied. Even more so since we have the exclusivity with the Arrius 2K1-powered Agusta A109 E Power, and an overall 45% market-share in that segment, military included.
Q: What are the prospects for the RTM322?
A: Franáois Courtot: We're very happy in our co-operation with Rolls-Royce for this engine. It has proven a success with an 80% market share with the EH101. After the UK and Denmark, we've recently won a contract to power Japan's EH101 helicopters. The only exception is Italy, but that's because they manufacture our competitor's engine, the GE T700, under licence. I am therefore sure the RTM322 will log more orders.
Q: What about your partnership with HAL?
A: Franáois Courtot: We signed a very important contract with HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics) of India to power the Dhruv, a military twin-engine multirole helicopter which is presented at Le Bourget.
Two engines will be used on the different versions of Dhruv: the TM333 2B2, and the "Shakti", a variant of the Ardiden family co-developed with HAL, which comes with an order of 300 units.
Source: Flight Daily News
