It might be a metaphor for the ups and downs of Portugal's industrial ambitions. Beside a crumbling former Renault plant - shut in the 1990s when eastern Europe began to undercut countries such as Portugal for low-cost car assembly - another French investor is creating manufacturing jobs, this time in aerospace, and with the promise that it is in it for the long haul.

Biarritz-based Lauak (the name is Basque) is one of Portugal's few aerostructures producers. The company set up the subsidiary in 2003, moving three years ago to its new, spacious purpose-built facility on the former Renault site at Setubal near Lisbon, now an enterprise zone. The Portuguese plant employs 120 people, including 12 engineers, designing and manufacturing a range of metallic structural components including the substructure of the Dassault Falcon 7X, Airbus A320 cockpit racks and the Gulfstream G250's fuel tank. Embraer is also a customer.

Lauak's bosses chose Portugal because labour rates were lower than those in France and because Lauak had an expatriate Portuguese in its executive team to set up the factory - current managing director Armando Gomes. At the time, OGMA was the only Portuguese company manufacturing aircraft parts and Lauak was sure it could offer a second source of parts within the country.

In fact, most of Lauak's initial workforce came from Portugal's largest aerospace concern. "It was hard for us at first to find people, but we did get some from OGMA," says Gomes. "They trained other people and slowly we were able to increase production."

Gomes is confident of securing further work from Embraer, both on Legacy business jets and the KC-390. "We are one of only a few aerostructures companies so we are in a good position when they come in. It would not make sense for Embraer to make these big investments if they did not benefit local industry," he says.

Although the Portuguese business started as a low-cost satellite of the French operation, Gomes believes it can become an established tier-one partner in its own right. "We are updating our capabilities through lean manufacturing and we want to develop our own supply chain within Portugal," he says.

Source: Flight International