On the Record with
LOUIS LE PORTZ, CHAIRMAN & CEO, MESSIER-DOWTY

Messier-Dowty Will Pursue Partnerships

After six months at the helm of Messier-Dowty, the world's leading landing gear company, Louis Le Portz is taking reality by the horns.

He is going to have to share the market with deadly rival BFGoodrich.

Messier-Dowty supplies all the landing gears to Airbus, and has been unable to penetrate Boeing except for a 25% subcontracting deal with BFGoodrich's Menasco on the Boeing 777. Not surprisingly Boeing supplier BFGoodrich has not had much luck with Airbus.

"I cannot imagine that either Boeing or Airbus will continue to have just one source each for such an important system as the landing gear," Le Portz told Show News. "My challenge is to penetrate Boeing, but maybe that means we must leave room for our competitor at Airbus."

Le Portz is ready to approach BFGoodrich. "I have not talked to BFGoodrich yet, and I do not know their management," he allowed. "I do not know exactly what they are thinking, if they want to or are ready to collaborate or cooperate, or if there is a door open," he said.

Striking a partnership with BFGoodrich would actually increase competition, not decrease it, he said, as it would give the U.S. company entry to Airbus, and Messier-Dowty to Boeing. That way each could compete for the whole airliner market, not just the 50% each won by the rival airframers.

Messier-Dowty, part of the Snecma Group, manufactures landing gears in France, Canada and the UK, and components in Singapore. Its sales last year topped $500 million, and its equipment is fitted to 15,000 aircraft flying with 600 commercial and military operators around the world. It claims 46% of the landing gear market, and has developed an expertise in providing complete systems.

BFGoodrich won 36% of the market (in value) last year, according to Messier-Dowty, leaving others such as Liebherr with an 18% share.

Le Portz is also thinking of cooperating more extensively with Liebherr, which supplies the nose landing gear for Embraer's rapidly growing regional airliner fleet and Eurofighter. "We are already partners with them on other programs; for small landing gears the technology is the same, but the required investment in machine tools is not. So once again, there may be a way to cooperate," said Le Portz.

The new chairman is no stranger to putting together inter-company deals. Earlier in his extensive aerospace career he led the simulation business of Thomson in France, buying Link-Miles and later Rediffusion from Hughes to form Thomson Training and Simulation.

He sees cooperation and partnerships as crucial for the future, especially as the launch of the Airbus A3XX and A400M transport programs place huge investment demands on an already stretched world landing gear industry.

Yet growth demands that Messier-Dowty bid for almost every new program. It is already on every major European commercial and military program including Eurofighter and Rafael, and has teamed with Boeing as the exclusive landing gear provider for the Joint Strike Fighter. Again, Le Portz wonders if sole source will be acceptable. "We will share if we have to. We are very open to that," he said.

As Messier-Dowty's worldwide fleet grows, so do the demands for customer service. Through the Messier Services company it jointly owns with wheel and brake sister company Messier-Bugatti, Messier-Dowty currently has a 30% share in the world landing gear overhaul market, with the airlines accounting for 60% and independents just 10%. Here, Messier-Dowty plans to be innovative, to overhaul more of its competitors' equipment, and to form more joint ventures with airlines. The latest is with SIA Engineering (SIAEC, owned by Singapore Airlines), to service Airbus and Boeing landing gears. It will be the first facility in Asia capable of handling landing gear for the Airbus A330/340 family and the Boeing 777.

"I am fully convinced the way you service your product is a good discriminator against the competition," Le Portz said.

By John Morris