On the Record with
GEOFF SMITH, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, DOWTY GROUP

Chief executive Geoff Smith is genial, but his delivery is quick and eager, and as he talks of 6,500 people in his Dowty Group adding pride and enthusiasm to their skills, he can be imagined out in the jetstream, sabre outstretched, leading them and his generals to further successes.

"Most concerns are able to put forward pretty similar commercial deals, " he says. "But we believe there can be a significant difference in how all the people involved are committed and perceived; that's where we believe we have a real advantage"

There can be no doubting Dowty's performance-six years of 12% compound sales growth and double digit margins from its three major businesses: hydraulics and actuators, aerostructures, and large circular components for turbine engines. Propellers, for which Dowty is famous and in which it is a world leader, are gradually becoming a niche market as the number of new propeller-driven aircraft designs declines.

Smith declares: "We are a leaner, more healthy, vibrant group of companies then we have ever been before, and my conviction is that we can give a truly exceptional worldwide service to customers."

The leanness he attributes to parent TI group's "great" financial controls. "It was a previous lack of them which made Dowty a takeover candidate. We had been practicing real, lean manufacturing since 1992 but six years within TI have brought great increases in overall efficiency, and the results are there to see."

In 1994, sales were $278 million. Last year they topped $918 million and generated $116 million profit.

Dowty's engine and airframe hydraulic and actuation systems for instance, are employed in all current Airbus and Boeing programs and in a long list of regional, business, military aircraft and helicopters on both sides of the Atlantic.

They are also on every current major engine program, among them the CFM56, GE's CF6, GE90, F110, F404/414, Pratt & Whitney's PW4000, PW2000 and F100, and Rolls-Royce Trent, RB211 and Pegasus.

North American and European sales are evenly balanced, and so are the main product areas -- 40% engine related, and 45% airframe.

Important acquisitions include the ex-British Aerospace Hamble companies now producing large structures like the 24 ft diameter Beluga cargo door, and from wing leading and trailing edges to five-axis machined precision components.

Another is Tri-Industries in Indiana which has extended Dowty's jet engine capabilities into hot-section components. New Tri successes have included a $15 million long-term contract for re-designed CFM56-7 air manifolds, and a $7 million contract from Pratt & Whitney for F119 engine sidewall and air pump components for the F-22 Raptor's low rate initial production phase.

Says Smith: "We are very definitely interested in additions to the family, but not for the sake of turnover; that's not the way we want to expand."
But he does see exciting opportunities ahead.

"The A3XX should be such a huge program there will be a whole new spate of collaborations and working agreements. Very few have what is needed to bring those things together on their own."

It's a refreshing aspect of the aerospace industry, he says, this readiness of suppliers, even direct competitors, to collaborate.
Dowty has a recent, first-hand example itself.

When Boeing decided to outsource all the tube and duct assemblies part-way through its C-17 Globemaster III military transport program, Cobham PLC subsidiary Stanley Aviation made a combined pitch for the business with Dowty's Lewis & Saunders company.

As a result, the consortium will supply tubing and ducting throughout the aircraft, with Lewis & Saunders securing business worth $25 million for producing all the titanium ducting totalling 1,100 part numbers.

Dowty was already designated a "Best of British" supplier by Boeing. Its wing structure components, hydraulics and actuation as well as turbine engine components for the C-17 amount to more than $200 million overall on aircraft orders already announced.

Smith also sees air freighters and cargo conversions becoming one of the biggest markets over the next 10 years, and one where it can take a leading position.

"We are able to supply the frame, door, actuation-everything for a fit-in cargo conversion. That package must have enormous attractions."
He prefers to talk of offering packages like that, rather than systems.

To reinforce that concept, Dowty is at Farnborough with components for military and civil engines, plus a full-sized fuselage section and wing root, hydraulics, actuation, gear systems and working wing leading and trailing edges.

By Steve Morris