Kevin Dudley of STS Aviation talks to FINN about STS Aviation’s latest acquisitions and strategic growth plan
STS Aviation has been growing its European footprint with the acquisition of Newquay based Apple Aviation and Monarch’s MRO hangar in Birmingham in the autumn of 2019.
Kevin Dudley, Chief Commercial Officer, who is part of Apple Aviation, explained how the acquisitions fitted in with STS Aviation: “STS are building a global footprint, they are already well established in the US with the businesses there and now with the acquisition of Apple and some other strategic acquisitions in Ireland, they’re growing their European footprint. We are going to build that on a global scale as well.”
He added: “Something that STS saw in Apple was a smaller version of themselves when they were young. It’s a family business, it’s entrepreneurial, very much a bit of a niche business. We are not a big MRO that goes after heavy maintenance C checks, we do modifications, repairs, AAG recovery, that sort of work, so its a very good match. Culturally we seem to be a good fit as well. We’re fitting in well, so we see good prospects ahead.”
European hub planned
STS is planning to create a new European hub for its businesses at the hangar in Birmingham. Dudley explained: “We’re headquartered in a hangar in Newquay and our head office in Cheshire. So, going forward, we are going to headquarter the European businesses at the hangar facility in Birmingham. We’re going to spend time to integrate the businesses and get some consolidation in terms of some of the overheads and look to growth from there.”
He added that consolidation wouldn’t result in job losses, instead it would lead to jobs being created: “We’ve got a big facility in Birmingham which can take eight narrowbody aircraft or two widebody aircraft. We’re on a recruitment drive to fill that hangar.”
