AE Aerospace to expand into new facility

The company has already enjoyed a five hundred percent increase in sales following a ten-fold increase in orders, and is continuing to grow. 

AE Aerospace engineers and manufactures components for the aerospace, marine and defence industries. The company currently has a site in Highgate in Birmingham and another in Dudley. However, the business has seen its order book grow dramatically and needs more room. Most recently it has won more work in the aerospace sector including contracts with Boeing and Airbus.

Peter Bruch, Managing Director of AE Aerospace said: “We have simply run out of space. When we completed a management buy-out three years ago, we had 24 members of staff. We now have 63 and expect to reach 100 by the end of next year.

“We believe that we win orders because of our focus on safety, quality, delivery and cost and our expertise and knowledge. One of the first things we put in place three years ago was a robust growth strategy and business plan. We quickly put this into action and it has paid off. Now, we have the staffing resources, machinery and technology. We have a good range of products. And we know our sectors very well.

“We’re keen to stay in the city, and are now proactively looking for new premises in Birmingham that will give us the room grow as we are anticipating to double in size again over the next two years. It is our aim to find a site that would allow us to design and purpose-build a new factory to suit our needs, and we’re receiving support and advice from a regional agency to help with this.”

The company is also heavily investing in new machinery to increase its capacity, with the company planning to purchase additional Mazak machines, which are made in Worcester. AE Aerospace has also invested in the installation of a new ERP system (Enterprise Resource Planning) which will incorporate a fully interactive Capacity Planning module. This will ensure the business is in line with the connectivity from factory floor to customer as part of the company’s drive to embrace the fourth industrial revolution.

As part of its expansion journey, AE Aerospace is also receiving support from the Advanced Services Group at Aston University to servitise the business. Servitisation was first recognised in the 1960s within the aerospace industry when Bristol Siddeley introduced “Power by the Hour”. It was later re-invented by Rolls Royce in the 1980s.

The move to the new site will take place in stages over the next 12 months, with the factory being fully open by September 2018.

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