Story ID: 18a
StandardAero 'Being Methodical' in Signature ERO Merger
By: Jerry Siebenmark
Caption: StandardAero official expects integration of Signature ERO acquisition to continue into 2022.
Word Count: 593
Even though StandardAero closed on its $230 million acquisition of Signature Aviation’s engine repair and overhaul (ERO) business in July, integration of the two businesses is expected to continue through 2022, StandardAero Business Aviation president Tony Brancato told AIN. Based in Dallas, Signature’s ERO comprises engine overhaul facilities in Dallas (Dallas Airmotive) and Portsmouth, England, 10 regional turbine centers, one component MRO site, and two parts/distribution facilities. Combined, the ERO employs 1,100 people and generated $500 million in revenue in 2020.
So far, the integration has “moved along very well,” Brancato said. “We’re continuing to work and integrate our operations together, the engine models, the customer databases that we have. Our sales teams have come together and are fully integrated. Our field service team is now 75 plus strong in the U.S. and that team has been brought under a single leader so we have a single front to our customers early on when they call for any type of AOG services or anything requiring something away from our facilities.”
This is Brancato’s second time with a major integration at StandardAero. As senior v-p of business integration in 2017, he oversaw StandardAero’s roll-up of Vector Aerospace. With 2,200 workers in 22 global locations and $700 million in annual revenue, the Vector acquisition was considerably larger. “It was a natural progression to take over business aviation at the same time while we were closing on the Signature ERO business,” Brancato said.
He estimated the integration could take as many as 18 months to complete, based in part on lessons learned from the Vector integration. “We’re being very methodical in how we bring our two businesses together,” Brancato explained. “We don’t want to break anything. We don’t want to drop any balls with any of our customers.”
Dallas Airmotive occupies more than 200,000 sq ft of facilities. Dallas Airmotive is a major piece of StandardAero's acquisition of Signature Aviation's engine repair and overhaul business.(Photo: StandardAero)
The ERO acquisition adds service capabilities on several different engine models for StandardAero. Two of them are the Rolls-Royce Spey and Tay engines found on the Gulfstream II/III and G450, respectively. “So that really brings in a nice marriage for us when we’re talking to customers about their G450—some of these aircraft that have Tay-powered engines on them where we can talk to them about some airframe work, paint, interior and that propulsion work where we’ll do removals and replacements and send the engines to Dallas."
The acquisition also brings StandardAero new engine service opportunities in Dallas on the Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) PW306 and PW500 variants. The PW306 powers aircraft such as the Bombardier Learjet 60 and Cessna Citation Sovereign and Latitude, while the PWC500-series powers the Embraer Phenom 300 and legacy and current-production Citations such as the Encore+ and Excel/XLS/XLS+."That really expanded our Pratt portfolio,” Brancato said of the acquisition.
StandardAero will retain the brand and logos of Dallas Airmotive and its more than 200,000 sq ft of property in Texas’ third-largest city. “We’re going to grow that business,” Brancato said of Airmotive. “The Dallas facility bolts right on and it fits nicely into our other sites,” he added. It also serves as the farthest west “really large” brick-and-mortar site for StandardAero.