On 13th January, the acquisition of Douglas Equipment by Textron Specialized Vehicles, a division of US manufacturer Textron, was completed. Just 4 years earlier – in April 2011 – Curtiss-Wright had acquired UK-based aviation GSE supplier Douglas Equipment, and the latter’s managing director, Jon Emmet, talks to Airside about what the new parent owner will mean for Douglas
“It’s a very good fit for us,” Emmet explains. “Curtiss-Wright hadn’t regarded us as a core part of their business and had publicly said that they wanted to divest themselves of Douglas, while Textron is seeking to grow its aviation GSE business.”
That process of divestment started last year, with Douglas offering a list of possible and preferred buyers to Curtiss-Wright. Emmet was involved in negotiations with potential buyers, explaining Douglas’s capabilities and its plans for the future. Of course, the final decision lay elsewhere, but there is no doubt that he is happy with the result and with Douglas’s new owners.
Under the parent company, there are significant opportunities for synergies with other Textron businesses, Emmet explains. For instance, the potential for collaboration with Kennesaw, Georgia-based TUG Technologies, another operating arm of Textron, is particularly exciting. Textron only acquired TUG Technologies in the early part of last year, just the first step in what Emmet describes as its journey into the GSE aviation sector – a journey that has continued this year with the acquisition of Douglas and that will progress further through both organic and inorganic growth in the months and years ahead.
TUG Technologies specialises in GSE such as ground power units, air starts, belt loaders and air-conditioning units. It does also offer a range of pushback tractors but “there is no major overlap”, Emmet insists, explaining that Douglas has – unlike TUG Technologies – focused primarily on the towbarless tractor sector.
Moreover, their geographical areas of operations are also very different. TUG Technologies has a major presence in the North American market, a network infrastructure on which Douglas can lean to grow its own business the other side of the Atlantic in the US and Canada. And, vice versa, TUG Technologies can benefit from Douglas’s widespread presence in the UK and Europe, where the former as yet has no presence. For this reason at least, Emmet confirms that both companies will, at least for the foreseeable future, maintain their own networks of agents/distributors.
As such, he remarks that while there is some overlap in terms of conventional tractor products, in essence: “We have very different value propositions designed for different markets.”
FOCUS
Textron not only already has a well-established brand in the aviation GSE business, it is extremely keen to grow GSE as a core part of its portfolio. This means more support for Emmet and his team at Douglas, both operational and financial. Of course, this does bring its own pressures. Textron will be looking to ensure that all its businesses in the GSE segment are as efficient as they can be, and are likely to ask some pretty pointed questions if they aren’t.
Douglas can perhaps learn from TUG Technologies in this regard, Emmet suggests. In 2006, the US business began introducing ‘lean manufacturing’ processes in an effort to drive higher levels of efficiency by reducing waste in its manufacturing, order fulfilment and supply chain processes. Douglas may well be able to benefit from such techniques.
Learning from each other and benefiting from synergies between the two businesses – especially in the realm of cross-selling each other’s products – are going to offer benefits for both, Emmet considers. He insists that there are no plans to merge the two enterprises – they will continue to operate and trade under their own names and brands from their respective bases in Cheltenham, England and Georgia, in the US.
Douglas will continue to focus on its various towbarless and conventional tractors, as well as other GSE lines, and on offering customer value right across its product range, Emmet remarks. It will also continue to research and develop new technologies. One area of priority is ‘clean and green’ GSE, non-fossil-fuel- powered units likely to form an important part of the Douglas portfolio in years to come. Demand for electric-powered tugs has been particularly vociferous from customers – and potential customers – in China.
