The Spanish aeronautics sector is a puzzle that cannot be completed without Aciturri. Founded in 1977 by its current executive president, Ginés Clemente, the manufacturer of parts for commercial aircraft is, together with the Basque company Aernnova, the national reference supplier of aerostructures for Airbus, Boeing, Embraer and Rolls-Royce, with plants in Spain, France, Brazil and Morocco. His name has been heard in some of the large corporate movements in a sector with high strategic value.
Born in a machining workshop in Miranda de Ebro, in Burgos, the company obtained its first aeronautical contract in 1984 and, since then, it has been gaining the trust of large aircraft manufacturers. More than 45 years later, it manufactures parts for the fuselage, landing gear and rudder of models such as the A350 or A320, the most popular Airbus aircraft. It also makes parts for the A400M and C295 military aircraft, assembled in Spain.
It has a long history, but the last few years have been especially decisive. Shortly before the pandemic, amid messages from Airbus in favor of mergers between suppliers in Europe to improve competitiveness in an increasingly global market, it bought 76% of Alestis from Sepi, rescued a few years earlier by the state holding company. However, the agreement with Sepi was not enough to take the great business leap.
With the pandemic, the British group Rolls-Royce was forced to sell the only major Spanish aircraft engine manufacturer, ITP. For the Government, it was essential to recover its Spanishness and, to do so, it sought local investors for the purchase. Aciturri attended with the investment fund Cinven, while the American fund Bain presented itself together with the Basque company Sapa and JB Capital. It was this second option, the one preferred by the PNV, that prevailed and which Indra later joined. Aciturri was left out of this large investment, which has separated it from the group of companies around which the Government has been forming a new Defense ecosystem.
Having overcome the setback, the company now has its sights set on its traditional business, that of parts for civil aircraft, and on taking positions abroad and in the manufacture of engines. At the end of September it took a step in both directions by purchasing Moroccan GOAM Industrie, which makes parts for French engine maker Safran.
“More than ever, we are aware of the need to be committed to the development of a sustainable industry, be rigorous in the management of resources and ambitious in the search for new opportunities,” says Clemente in the company’s latest annual report.
Together with Alestis –the two companies maintain boards of directors and separate accounts–, Aciturri added revenues of 380 million euros in 2022 and its forecast is to close this year with growth. It also employs around 3,000 people and, as Clemente also indicates, the group has once again been a net recruiter of personnel, with a staff increase of 17% last year.
Its current income is actually still far from the 623 million euros reached in 2019, before the pandemic. Despite the recovery of air traffic, airlines are heavily indebted and in many cases have postponed fleet renewal plans, to which are added tensions in supply chains due to the problems that lower-level suppliers still face. Airbus is increasing the production rate of its best-selling aircraft, the A320, but it is not doing so for other models, while Boeing has been struggling with production problems for years after the accidents of its 737s five years ago.
Aciturri hopes to recover pre-covid income in 2025. Clemente speaks in the annual report of a “postponement of recovery expectations” and “timid signs” of reactivation in a business still recovering from the pandemic.
