The announcements follow one another and look alike for Mecachrome. On Monday, September 19, the manufacturer of structural parts and aircraft engines declared that it was taking a majority stake in the capital of Rossi Aero, a Toulouse-based SME specializing in the production on demand of parts and equipment in small and medium series. This maneuver is part of an industrial strategy.
“This company is able to produce parts in a short cycle and therefore very quickly, believes Christian Cornille, president of Mecachrome. His contribution is significant for us, because it allows us to complete our service offer. » This consolidation operation is not the first of the equipment manufacturer, whose headquarters are in Blagnac (Haute-Garonne), near Airbus, its main customer. On August 29, the subcontractor struck hard by formalizing his marriage with Weare, a group based in Montauban, born in 2016 from the takeover of several companies to produce mechanical parts.
It is the conjunction of several factors which pushed Pascal Farella, president of Weare, to accept this union. “The family business had reached its limits in terms of its size, explains who has been appointed Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the new entity. And the fourth generation of the family was not able to take over. To sustain our business, we had to evolve and free up capital. Today, we address all volumes and the entire technological spectrum sought in the elementary part. »
Sector consolidation
This industrial heavyweight, with its 3,700 employees and 20 factories, prides itself on being one of the five major European parts manufacturers capable of adapting to the growing orders of its aircraft and engine manufacturer customers. By relying on its factories, which it wishes to be specialized and automated, Mecachrome intends to conquer the American aeronautical market, while diversifying its activity in the automotive and defense sectors. This restructuring is not a surprise: already, in the summer of 2021, the group had announced the color by buying Hitim (landing gear axles and aircraft engine shafts).
By immobilizing planes on the ground, the Covid-19 has cut the wings of aeronautics, the economic lung of the Occitanie region
“It is part of our roadmapspecifies Mr. Cornille, former number 2 of Airbus Helicopters, appointed in June 2019 at the head of the subcontractor, then in the red, to lead this transformation. Outsourcers have been talking about industry consolidation for a long time. We had to take the leap. » It is the pandemic that is accelerating the movement. By immobilizing planes on the ground, the Covid-19 cuts the wings of aeronautics, the economic lung of the Occitanie region. Suppliers, who live mainly at the pace of Airbus, are feeling the blow: 6,200 employees lost their jobs in 2020.
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