The Bengaluru-based Maini Group of the Reva electric car fame, has entered into a five-year agreement with the French aviation components major Safran Group to supply various components for the landing gears and breaks for Airbus A350s.
"We have entered into a five-year contract with the Safran Group of France for supplying the landing gears and breaks to A350 aircraft. Under the agreement, we will be supplying high-end machine components made of steel and titanium for its Airbus A350 programmes," Naresh Paltam, chief executive for aerospace and defence business at Maini Group, told PTI from Bengaluru.
He said the contract will be between Safran Landing Systems (formerly Messier-Bugatti-Dowty) which is the world leader in aircraft landing and braking systems and the group's flagship Maini Precision Products. The companies will formally ink the agreement tomorrow at the Aero India which is beginning in Bengaluru.
Citing confidentiality clause with the French partner, Paltam refused to share the deal details.
He said while this is the first order from Safran Landing Systems, the Maini Group has been working with the 17.4-billion euros French Group for the past many years supplying aircraft engine parts and mainframes to the Paris and Euronext stock exchanges-listed group.
The diversified Maini Group, which is credited for building the country's first electric car Reva in the early part of the last decade which was later sold to the Mahindra group, has entered the aviation business in 2005 and has been since then supplying engine parts, mainframe parts and landing gears & breaking system components to a clutch of aviation OEMs (original equipment manufacturers).
Paltam said 10 percent of the Rs 600-crore topline of last year, came from aviation business and that with this deal he expects to see a major spike in this.
"I see our aviation revenue growing by 25-30 per cent with the Safran deal."
It has been supplying engine parts to Safran for use in Boeing and Airbus aircraft, while it has also been supplying airframe components to Marshall of Britain and the American company Magellan for many years now.
Paltam also said the company will be putting up an Rs 8-crore dedicated 60,000-sqft aerospace facility by August at Bommasandra near Bengaluru for this.
"This agreement entitles Maini Precision to be a
strategic member of Safran Landing Systems sub-tier supply chain. We will begin work for the A350 airbus aircraft programme for a five-year period shortly," Paltam said.
The agreement will be signed tomorrow by Alain Frehring, executive VP at Safran Landing Systems, and Gautam Maini of the Maini Group.
Commenting on the deal, Frehring said Maini Precision has constantly proven its capabilities with consistent performance for our sister company Safran Aircraft Engines.
"This is one of the key factors for us to award the contract to support landing gear parts for the A350 programme".
Maini joined in saying being the world's largest maker of landing gears marks a significant milestone in the company's aerospace venture.
The Safran Group, a part of the Paris CAC40 index, is into aerospace (propulsion and equipment), defence and security, and has worldwide operations with 70,000 employees.
Safran Landing Systems is the world leader in aircraft landing and braking systems and being a partner to 30 major commercial, military, business and regional aircraft makers, it supports over 25,000 aircraft making over 40,000 landings a day, according to its website.
The Maini group, founded in 1973, caters to automotive, aerospace, industrial, material handling and warehousing solutions and the group flagship Maini Precision has a global clientele in Safran Group, Eaton, Magellan, Marshall Aerospace, Dassault, Rockwell Collins, Woodward, GE, Parker, Honeywell, GE Avio Aero among others.
