Mark Hannant
Globalisation in the aerospace industries may be making times tougher for small and medium sized businesses trying to compete with the might of the industry giants. A helping hand can make the difference between success and failure.
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the UK are set to benefit from the launch of the SBAC's UK Aerospace Marketing Centre.
The internet-based information service is being launched at Farnborough. It is part of the society's initiative to help SMEs overcome the constraints to growth that limited resources dictate.
Often small companies lose out simply because they do not have the resources to purchase the research information that would enable them to compete in new markets and on new projects.
Turnover
Much of the UK's aerospace industry is characterised by SMEs - defined by the European Commission as a company having no more than 250 employees, less than £30 million ($48 million) turnover and which is not more than 25% owned by voting rights by another company.
The SBAC's 1998 annual UK Aerospace Industry Survey indicates that this definition covers around 73% of the UK's aerospace businesses.
Jim Townsend, the programme manager of the SBAC's Competitiveness Challenge, explains how the society is aiming to support SMEs. Says Townsend: "It can be a problem for smaller companies to justify spending large amounts of money on market research and information gathering.
"The idea of the Marketing Centre is to ensure the SMEs can gain access to the same information as larger companies, giving them the opportunity to expand their business."
Networking
The new service - being demonstrated at the SBAC stand (Hall 1, Stand C1) - allows subscribers to share information with industry partners while on-line. Alongside the networking opportunities, the UK Aerospace Marketing Centre also provides vital market and contract information.
A pilot scheme has already won praise. Phil Williams, executive director of the West of England Aerospace Forum, says: "It's a great initiative with a lot of very useful information which will be invaluable to many businesses, both large and small, on a day to day basis, I find most useful the summaries of all aerospace newspaper articles, which saves me a lot of time. There is no doubt the centre is exceptional value for money."
Source: Flight Daily News
