Canadian aerospace supplier plans to open Everett plant

  • By Dan Catchpole Herald Writer
  • Thursday, February 26, 2015 10:56am
  • Business

EVERETT — Canadian aerospace supplier Héroux-Devtek is opening a plant in Everett for providing landing gear systems for the Boeing Co.

The facility is part of the company’s $105 million investment plan to make good on a long-term contract to provide landing gear for Boeing’s 777 classic and its successor, the 777X.

Much of the assembly work will be done at Héroux-Devtek’s plants in Canada and Ohio.

The facility here will handle final assembly and employ at peak 10 people, according to a news release from the company and Economic Alliance Snohomish County.

Héroux-Devtek is leasing a 21,000-square-foot facility in Seaway Center, an industrial park near Boeing’s plant and Paine Field. It is slated to start operations in the fall of 2015. Deliveries to Boeing are scheduled to start in early 2017, the company said.

The facility does provide an opportunity for the company to “grow our landing gear operations in Everett,” Martin Brassard, Héroux-Devtek’s vice president and chief operating officer, said in the release.

Héroux-Devtek landed the supplier contract in September 2013 through its subsidiary, HDI Landing Gear USA Inc. A couple months later, that agreement turned into a long-term contract — and Héroux-Devtek’s largest landing-gear contract.

Previously, the company had supplied minor components for the 777’s landing gear systems. It also provides complete systems for small, regional commercial aircraft and military fighters.

Boeing’s choice surprised some aerospace analysts, who at the time expressed concern about the supplier’s ability to handle such a big contract.

Gov. Jay Inslee said in the release that the state aggressively lobbied Boeing to assemble the 777X here, in part, because it would attract suppliers to the area.

“Companies from around the world are recognizing that Washington is secure in its place as the center of commercial aviation and will be for decades to come,” he said.

Talks with the company began last year at the Farnborough International Air Show in the United Kingdom, said Alex Pietsch, the state’s top aerospace policy adviser.

Héroux-Devtek is one of the world’s largest landing gear systems suppliers, and it supplies both commercial and military aerospace sectors. It is also produces electronic systems.

It is based near Montreal in Longueuil, Québec, and has facilities in Canada, Great Britain, and Ohio and Kansas.

As part of its investment plan, the company has also built a new 108,000-square-foot plant in Cambridge, Ontario. It is already in pre-production and will be fully running in June, according to the Héroux-Devtek.

The company is also nearly doubling its Cleveland plant to about 100,000 square feet.

Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.

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