Aircraft services firm’s lift-off to top of prestige league table
AERFIN, the Caerphilly-based aircraft and spares services firm, is the UK’s fastest-growing privately-owned firm for international sales.
The business, set up by Bob James in 2010, tops this year’s influential Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 league table – after achieving a huge average annual growth in international sales over the past two years of 664%.
Since the business was launched, it has invested more than £65m buying aircraft frames and component parts, which it recycles and then sells or leases to the likes of Lufthansa, Air France and Philippine Airlines. Its international sales soared to £51.7m in 2016.
There are three other Welsh companies on the list of mid-market private companies, defined as having total sales of at least £25m and international sales of at least £1m.
It is the first year that AerFin has made the list. And it comes after last year being named the fastest-growing indigenous firm in Wales when it topped the Wales Fast Growth 50 league table.
The three other Welsh companies on the list are:
Chepstow-based steel decking company Composite Floor Deck Group, which is ranked 77th, with international sales growth of 53%.
Flintshire-based clothing distributor Ralawise.com, ranked 114th, with international sales growth of 37%.
Port Talbot-based dietary supplement firm Cultech, ranked 189th, with international sales growth of 18%.
Individual parts can be worth more than complete planes when recycled and used in maintenance and repair of older fleets, so AerFin diversified soon after having been established into buying whole aircraft at the end of their life.
To support this, in 2014 it received an investment boost after American group CarVel took a 80% in the business, which employs 73.
AerFin focuses on single-aisle Airbus aircraft and Embraer regional jets.
The engines are managed at AerFin’s Caerphilly base. If they are not serviceable they are broken down into component parts and sold as spares.
In 2015, on the back of the investment, it moved into the airframes sector with the acquisition of a Gatwick-based aircraft components specialists.
And last month they acquired 15 aircraft from Saudi Arabian Airlines.
The Track 200 league table reflects the importance of Europe to Britain’s mid-market exporters ahead of Brexit negotiations. Almost 85% of the firms (167) sell to the continent, the most popular market, followed by north America (112) and Asia (75).
This year’s International Track 200 companies achieved, on average, overseas sales growth of 47% a year over two years to a total of £7.6bn. They employ 97,000 staff, having added 26,000 employees to their combined workforce over the period.
London is the most popular location for company headquarters with 74, followed by the South-East (32) and the North-West (27).
Of the remainder, 20 companies are based in the Midlands, 16 in the South-West, 12 in the North-East and Yorkshire, nine in Scotland, four in the East, four in Wales and two in Northern Ireland.
Amanda Murphy, UK head of commercial banking at HSBC, said: “This year’s Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 is testament to the exciting opportunities available to ambitious Welsh businesses with appetite to grow their goods and services abroad.”