With 56 meetings arranged during the week and a strategy based on increasing the size of the business tenfold, PAS Technologies' chief executive Robert Weiner is barely drawing breath at Paris.
The privately owned company (hall 3, A81), which specialises in fan blade and other engine component overhaul, is part of the US pavilion, but is an increasingly international business with recent acquisitions in Ireland and Romania and a joint venture in Singapore.
North Kansas City-based PAS was bought from its former owner Praxair Group in 2006 as part of a private equity deal. Since then management has "leaned out" the operation while pushing it "up the food chain", says Weiner.
"We started off specialising in Pratt & Whitney. Now we do all the engine manufacturers. We've moved from the cold section into the hot section and from piece part repair to managing whole sections for our customers," he says.
Although PAS does not reveal exact financial results, Weiner says the business was turning over $70 million when it was bought. "We've substantially grown that in three years and our objective is to be 10 times that size in 10 years," he says.
PAS - whose customers include airline in-house maintenance, repair and overhaul units, as well as OEMs, third-party MRO houses and the US military - has US operations in four states: Arizona, Florida, Missouri and Ohio.
Weiner is a huge fan of the world's biggest air show. "It's a major meeting opportunity for us - we came into the show with 56 set up," he says. "We were laughing with Honeywell about this. We are both in Phoenix but we end up having our most productive meeting here in Paris."
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Source: Flight Daily News
