Standard parts take-off with volume agreements

Satair Group’s major efforts to revamp its standard parts business is now paying dividends with several airline customers having signed multi-year volume agreements.

An important factor for stepping into this new business is the EASA Form 1 approval which, according to Stephane Groves, Head of Standard Parts Business, ‘is a cornerstone.’

Stephane said: “Beyond this, our ambition is to become a significant hardware distributor and to achieve this through deploying strong resources and investments in a number of important areas, underpinned by the quality foundation we now have.”

Significant investment has been made on aggregating volumes of standard parts, sourcing more competitively and more in bulk to continue reducing customer pricing.

Satair Group is also ramping up its product range significantly with increased part number scope and continuously growing stock. Main inventories are in Hamburg in Germany and Ashburn in the USA with plans to extend deployments to the Dubai and Singapore facilities.

“We are discussing local approaches to support several customers which we would like to tailor and kick-off for customers in the regions,” added Stephane.

A new type of volume agreement contract has also been introduced with a rebate scheme and pricing guaranteed for the duration of the contract, which is normally between one and three years.

“On the back of these first volume agreements, we will be further rolling out our offer to the customer base,” said Stephane. “Customers that have already signed up with us have found us to be a solid partner and have found that we were able to beat competitor prices. As we are not the dominant player in this market it is not a normal customer reflex to come to us, but we say; give us a chance – those that have are finding the experience to be good.”