MAA at Berlin airshow

The Midlands Aerospace Alliance exhibited at this week's ILA Berlin airshow for the first time, alongside an excellent group of UK companies.

Co-exhibitors include MAA members Cinch, Delcam, Indestructible Paint and Maycast, plus Castle Metals and Tritech.

The UK aerospace suppliers village was located within the excellent International Suppliers Centre (ISC) hall, which had its own busy schedule of "meet-the-buyer" meetings for exhibiting companies to meet German primes and tier 1s one-to-one.

First reactions from UK exhibitors include:

• four strong meetings in one day -- the meet-the-buyer sessions in which the buyers come to our stand are going like clockwork
• a very positive first UK presence at ILA
• the number of exhibitors is much greater than we expected -- it must be almost as many as Farnborough
• brilliant to be able to turn up and our stand pod is "ready to go" 
• excellent enquiry from Rolls-Royce supplier and another directly from EADS
• made really good contacts for first time with Rolls-Royce Germany -- and unexpected opportunity with Mexico company
• has got us back in touch with previous customers who are also exhibiting
• the usual first-rate professional support from the MAA

Accordingly to exhibitor Indestructible Paint:

Indestructible were looking to expand into the aerospace market in Germany, and the MAA stand at ILA 2012 was seen as a way of introducing our name to a wider audience within the German and European aerospace markets. We met several new potential customers, but it also gave us an opportunity to meet with existing clients, and look to expand our business with them. Since ILA 2012, we have seen an increase in turnover, to such an extent that we have now appointed an authorised stockist and distributor , based in Germany, and serving the markets in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. We will be exhibiting again at ILA 2014.

New UK BIS minister Michael Fallon MP spent an hour on the UK stand talking to every exhibiting company following the regular "Airbus ministers" meeting that is traditionally held at the show. Exhibitors were able to brief the minister on how their businesses fitted into the aerospace supply chain, current business conditions and any current issues that might be holding back their growth.

The UK aerospace supplier village was organised by the MAA on behalf of ADS and all the UK regional alliances: Aerospace Wales, Farnborough Aerospace Consortium, Midlands Aerospace Alliance, Northern Defence Industries, Northwest Aerospace Alliance and West of England Aerospace Forum. It was supported by Tradeshow Access Programme funding from UK Trade and Investment.