NEWS 18/11/2013 AT AIRE-SUR-L'ADOUR, POTEZ CONTINUES TO EXPAND SUD-OUEST The Potez Aéronautique Group is building on its historic know-how and applying its policy for innovation and cutting-edge training to develop exponential growth. Roland Potez confirms: "The aeronautical sector is enjoying a period of plenty both in amplitude and in duration." After the slump in 2008 -2009, business has been growing at a rate rarely encountered previously, out of phase with most other industrial sectors. In the Landes region, this is benefitting Turbomeca in the south, and Potez established at Aire-sur-l’Adour. There, on the road to Houga, more than 350 employees are working on the manufacture of aerostructures for several customers spread all over the world, including Dassault Aviation in France. "We build a set of structures which form the aircraft fuselage. We then assemble the different parts in Biarritz, and in Blagnac. We are not on the same scale as Airbus, but our know-how, linked to our history, is widely recognised," as explained by the CEO of Potez Aéronautique, which in 2012 achieved a turnover of 32.3 million Euros (a 22 % increase compared with 2011, and 61 % compared with 2010), and can boast a full order book. Currently, Potez is working, in approximately equal proportions, for three main customers : Dassault, EADS-Airbus, and American aircraft manufacturers, essentially involved in military aviation. This success owes nothing to chance. Roland Potez is not the gambling type. This visionary and pragmatic Chief Executive Officer, favours a voluntarist investment policy, built around two main themes: "Enhancement of our capabilities in order to be able to integrate our design services with our production facilities thanks to a design office which considers production upstream, and to broaden our operating perimeter by advocating industrial excellence. We are highly active in the development of investment in innovation and in training." Training centre Potez Aéronautique thus operates its own approved training centre for recruiting its internal personnel. "It's not easy," we are told by Roland Potez. "We have great difficulty in recruiting, even for training for good jobs with guaranteed opportunities. Our country is dogged with a number of obstacles which are hindering industrial development. Our educational system has completely abandoned our industrial branch." This year we have twenty people in training, and they will come out with a qualification. "We have to invest in this, otherwise we shall be unable to meet the needs of the market" insists the Potez Aéronautique CEO. Robotisation Even if the sector is flourishing, it is nevertheless remains extremely competitive. "We hope that we have made the right choice by not submitting to the temptation of relocation", warns Roland Potez. Nowadays, like its French competitors such as Latécoère, Socata, or Sogerma, and its British or American counterparts, the company located in Aire sur l'Adour keeps a watchful eye on the network of "low cost" suppliers, based in Morocco, Tunisia, or Mexico, which have much lower labour and operating costs." "In the competitive world in which we live, we cannot eternally accumulate all the millstones," observes the boss of Potez. "For example : since 1987, our property tax has increased by a factor of 26.4. Our production facilities have been modernised and developed in order to adapt to the market and to be more competitive, but taxation is a real problem in this country." Another difficulty is the absence of high speed broadband communications. This is hampering our performance, and even harming our image when we attempt to arrange videoconferences with our American customers. Not to mention the road link via the Gers to reach the airport at Toulouse-Blagnac." There is no question however of abandoning our emblematic main premises at Aire sur l'Adour. In order to keep its head above water, Potez Aéronautique is concentrating on economic efficiency : "We are working on robot-based solutions for the assembly of structures." Our commitment to the preservation of the environment : "Solutions involving chemicals are in the hot seat. Substitutes must be found to improve quality whilst preserving the environment", indicates Roland Potez. Diversification, innovation, and export are the keywords for maintaining our course.