August 25, 2017
Source Plastics News, by Michael Lauzon
Feature image caption: Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, second from left, visited Meggitt Polymer and Composites in 2011 when it was named the 2011 Large Manufacturer of the Year by the Technical College System of Georgia and the Georgia Department of Economic Development.
Meggitt Polymers & Composites is investing $30 million to expand its Rockmart, Ga., operation.
The company, a division of Meggitt plc of Christchurch, England, will create 211 jobs to add to the 1,000 already employed in Rockmart.
The Rockmart facility specializes in aircraft fuel tanks, according to a 2015 report on Polk County Industries. Meggitt officials could not be reached immediately to comment on details of the expansion. The project will increase employment in production, management, engineering, inspection and technical positions.
The MPC division has been growing rapidly. Last year its sales ballooned by 86 percent vs. 2015 revenue. The division’s sales for 2016 were 329.7 million pounds ($425.3 million). Full-year contributions from acquisitions figured prominently in the sales hike.
For the first half of 2017, sales for the MPC division grew 13 percent to 165.4 million pounds ($213.4 million).
“As Meggitt Polymers & Composites continues to grow globally, we will also continue to expand here in Rockmart,” stated David Horner, president of the division, in a news release issued by Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal’s office.
“The state of Georgia is the perfect environment for us to accelerate our business growth and create more jobs in the near future.”
Meggitt’s total sales in the first half of the year grew 10 percent to 968.1 million pounds ($1.25 billion). The company’s other divisions are aircraft braking systems, control systems, sensing systems and equipment group. The firm makes components for military and commercial aircraft, aerospace applications and defense and energy markets.
Military accounts for 53 percent of MPC’s sales, and that market grew by 7 percent last year as fuel tanks offset weakness in the civil aerospace business. The division supplies flexible bladder fuel tanks, ice protection products and composite assemblies for fixed wing and rotorcraft platforms and complex seals packages for civil and military platforms. It supplies more than 80 percent of U.S. military requirements for fuel bladders and ballistically resistant and crashworthy fuel tanks. About two thirds of sales come from OEM clients with the rest from the aftermarket, the company stated in its 2016 annual report.
“Meggitt’s decision to expand its workforce is a reflection of Georgia’s ability to retain dynamic manufacturing companies with our business-friendly environment and highly skilled workforce,” noted Deal in a news release.
“We value Meggitt’s presence in our community and we are pleased that they have chosen to expand in Rockmart,” said Missy Kendrick, president of the Development Authority of Polk County, in a release.
The United States is the global leader for aerospace manufacturing, according to a study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, based on metrics of cost, industry presence and infrastructure. Among U.S. states, Georgia is fourth, after the leader Arizona, Florida and Utah.
Canada is ranked second in the PWC study. The U.S. aerospace manufacturing sector is seven times bigger than the third largest, the United Kingdom.