NIMROD Group is proud to announce that one of its business units, ESM, located in the Limoges, France area, has been awarded a new contract by Airbus and STELIA Aerospace for the serial production and assembly of A350 metallic parts. Since the inception of the program in 2011 ESM has successfully industrialized about 3 400 references of A350 parts.

“ESM is reaping the benefits of its past performance and the high responsiveness it has always demonstrated during the initial development and prototyping phases of these A350 detail parts. It was therefore a logical decision for Airbus and STELIA Aerospace to continue to rely on ESM and on NIMROD Group to support the strong ramp-up phase of the A350 program,” said Charles Huguet, Vice President Procurement of STELIA Aerospace.

Eddy Ephrati, President of NIMROD Group, said a prerequisite for meeting the serial target price expected by Airbus and STELIA Aerospace was to offer highly competitive production solutions combining cost efficiency and high quality standards. While ESM has been producing the A350 parts during the development, prototyping, and low-rate initial production phases, its new sister company AZURA POLSKA will produce the bulk of the serial production. “Launching a new industrial base has been in the preparation phase for quite some time now, and this new contract for A350 parts is now putting AZURA POLSKA on the fast track, with the first deliveries from Poland scheduled in early 2016,” said Eddy Ephrati.

Aircraft OEMs keep looking for competitive solutions from their suppliers, a trend confirmed at the latest Paris Air Show. Beyond this first A350 package, AZURA POLSKA will secure other OEMs' work-packages currently under final negotiation. Within the coming years, AZURA POLSKA will create between 200 and 300 new direct jobs in Lódz, distributed across industrialization, sheet metal detail parts production, component and structural assembly, surface treatment & painting, support and services, with a prime focus on innovative technologies and automation, the trademarks of the NIMROD Group.

The recruitment campaign for the first support and production jobs in the Lódz area will start in the upcoming weeks. New recruits will be sent to ESM for intensive training on the production and assembly of the A350 detail parts.

The decision to establish AZURA POLSKA in Poland was largely attributable to the Airbus Group long term industrial strategy, initiated back in 2001, to grow its existing footprint in Poland to become its 5thindustrial base in Europe.

Airbus Helicopters will create many direct and indirect jobs when its H225M Caracal program starts local production in Poland, so they solicited their supplier base to accompany them. “While our original plan was to establish our new factories in some neighboring countries, Airbus Group and Airbus Helicopters have convinced us that Poland was a better option, particularly with its young and skilled workforce in the aerospace industry, so here we are…” said Eddy Ephrati.

Airbus Helicopters has invited AZURA POLSKA to join its new industrial campus in Lódz, home of the Caracal Full Assembly Line (FAL). Lódz is already home of the Airbus Helicopters Engineering office (Created in February 2015). “We are very happy with the response of some of our key suppliers to answer our call to follow us to Poland, and NIMROD Group has been among the most supportive ones.” said Christian Cornille, Airbus Helicopters' Executive Vice President for Industry. “We are looking forward to becoming good neighbors in our industrial campus and to grow our business together” added Cornille.