Darchem Aerostructures wins Rolls Royce contract

AWARD-WINNING Darchem Engineering has revealed plans to hit £100m turnover by 2013 after winning a £4m per year contract with Rolls Royce.

The Stillington UK-based manufacturer of insulation systems, which last month was named company of the year at the North East Business Awards, will develop and supply parts for the aerospace giant’s BR 725 engines.

Assembled at Rolls-Royce’s Dahlewitz facility in Berlin, the engine will power the new Gulfstream G650 aircraft, which is aimed primarily at the business passenger market.

The deal, which is based on a rolling contract and is expected to be worth around £15-20m to Darchem, covers the supply of titanium components for aerospace ducting, engine by-pass ducting and high temperature-resistant exhaust systems.

The new engine is scheduled to power the first flight of the Gulfstream G650 aircraft in the second half of 2009 and will enter service in early 2012.

Darchem Engineering Limited

Ironmasters Way

Stillington

Stockton-on-Tees

TS21 1LB, England

Telephone: +44 (0) 1740 630461

Facsimile: +44 (0) 1740 630529

Email: sales@darchem.co.uk

Web: www.darchem.co.uk

Darchem Aerostructures has unrivalled expertise in the design and manufacture of gas turbine exhaust system modules. The unit is a major force in the development and manufacture of high temperature aerospace components, fabricating complex assemblies by the manipulation and joining of titanium, stainless steel and high nickel based alloys. End products include aircraft exhaust mixers, exhaust cones and aerospace exhaust systems.

Other components include jet pipes, exhaust nozzles, heat shields, aerodynamic fairings and other critical aerospace high temperature components and assemblies.

Processes include NADCAP approved welding, aerospace sheet metal work, aerospace stretch-forming, aerospace hotforming and NADCAP approved chemical processing.

The company is divided into several specialist units. The company's overall description would be component design and manufacture of plain structural and acoustically treated assemblies in aerospace structural materials like high temperature nickel based titanium based alloys. Hotformed components and riveted and welded structural assemblies.

Company bosses do not rule out future acquisitions and are on the lookout.

The company has won contracts worth £100m in the last year, supplying blue chip companies including Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, BAE Systems, Rolls Royce and the Ministry of Defence. Last month it announced it was investing £2.5m at its Stillington plant to extend its Insulation Systems facility, Thermal Protection business unit and Aerostructures operations.

Darchem aerospace products account for around two thirds of its overall business and are attracting interest from Asia and the Far East. But the company said it was not looking to establish new manufacturing sites overseas and that its Teesside base would be the focus of its expansion plans.

Owned by US parent firm Esterline Corporation, Darchem employs around 600 personnel at its Stillington headquarters and a further 120 at its Gloucester facility in the South-west. The company manufactures high temperature complex fabrications and lightweight insulation systems for predominantly the aerospace and nuclear markets.

DARCHEM Engineering was named as this year's Company of the Year at the biggest and best business awards in the North East.

The company capped an already successful year by taking the top prize at the North East Business Awards 2007.

The award tops a record year for Darchem, which is based at Stillington in the UK, near Durham Tees Valley Airport. It has landed contracts worth £100m and was named Company of the Year for Durham and Wearside at the third regional heat of the awards.

Darchem has been established in the region for 50 years and is a world leader in the manufacture of insulation systems. This year has seen the company unveil plans to create 40 more jobs with three factory expansions.

Darchem, which employs 630 workers at Stillington and 100 at its other site in Gloucester, supplies a raft of blue chip companies including Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, BAE Systems, Rolls Royce, Pratt & Whitney, Volvo and the Ministry of Defence.

The North East regional economy remains robust, vibrant and progressive.

Darchem Engineering Limited

Ironmasters Way

Stillington

Stockton-on-Tees

TS21 1LB, England

Telephone: +44 (0) 1740 630461

Facsimile: +44 (0) 1740 630529

Email: sales@darchem.co.uk

Web: www.darchem.co.uk