Community Corner

Meriden Aerospace Firm Part of Trade Mission to the U.K.

Connecticut tourism and defense companies travel with U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney to talk trade.

Meriden aerospace manufacturer Jonal Laboratories is one of 15 Connecticut businesses with delegates spending three days with U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney (D-2nd District) on a trade mission promoting defense exports and tourism in the United Kingdom.

The mission, part of President Barack Obama’s National Export Initiative to double U.S. exports in five years, wraps up Wednesday in London.

“Connecticut exports are a very strong source of activity and growth in the state,” Courtney said on a conference call Tuesday afternoon EST.

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The delegation he’s leading aims “to give [Connecticut] firms an opportunity to better understand the market in a place like the UK and make some connections with … defense companies and tourism.”

Representatives of the 15 Connecticut businesses, including Jonal, Chester-based AeroCision, Vernon-based BNL Industries, Materials Technologies Corporation of Monroe, and Mystic County, eastern Connecticut’s lead tourism promotion agency, are participating. The U.K. is one of the largest aerospace markets in the world, second only to the U.S.  In 2009 it was valued at $37 billion according to U.S. Department of Commerce statistics, and the U.S. supplied more than 23 percent – or $6 billion – of aerospace imports to the country that year.

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Courtney said the manufacturers had been spending their trip making contacts with large defense companies in the U.K., including the nation’s Lockheed Martin affiliate, and learning industry and import practices from government officials.

“We as a small company would never have this access, but for this trade mission, so it’s been hugely successful from that perspective,” said Andrew Gibson of AeroCision, which makes metal parts used by large companies including Rolls Royce and Honeywell, on the call.

Seeking out new markets is vital for aerospace manufacturers in the U.S. right now, Gibson said, because they are losing footing as other countries begin to produce the same parts. He estimated that about 10 years ago 95 percent of aerospace gear was made in the U.S. and U.K., but that in the next three years that number was likely to drop to 60 percent.

Jonal sent a delegate because the company has started to expand its product line and capabilities, firm President Marc Nemeth said from his office at 456 Center St. in Meriden, Tuesday afternoon.

The firm, started in Meriden in 1965 by Nemeth’s father John, has historically made rubber-based parts that are primarily used in the engines of missiles and jets. But recently the 60-employee company has brought on new engineers and machinery to widen its scope. It’s begun to produce parts for other portions of an aircraft, like door seals.

“You can go out on trade missions all the time and not have the accommodation to service the customers,” Nemeth said. “But now we’ve got the technical people we need in house, and the equipment we need to do the work we want to do.”

This mission was a first for Jonal, but it inaugurated a global marketing initiative for the company. In early May, Nemeth will attend a trade mission in Canada and in late June, company representatives will also attend an industry event in Paris.

These type of missions are invaluable, according to Anne Evans the District Director of Connecticut’s U.S. Department of Commerce Export Assistance Center based in Middletown. Evans is accompanying the delegation on the trip.

In the first two days, she said the aerospace and defense companies had a chance to understand what it takes to do business in the UK “and understand what these big [original equipment manufacturers] are now doing and they’re inviting us — this is a first — our companies from Connecticut are being invited to European and UK supplier fairs — something that’s never happened before.”

On Wednesday, the mission will wrap up with events that include a tourism breakfast with 12 British tour operators.


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