The programme, which was established in 2013, is a government-backed supply chain competitiveness programme to help take advantage of aerospace growth opportunities.
As a privately-owned business, the Kenard Group manufactures complex, critical components at its facilities in Dartford and Tewkesbury, and has a long history of supplying aerospace, both civil and military applications.
The firm has set itself ambitious growth targets, as well as cultural, process and digital transformation goals, that will benefit from the specialist coaching and training that SiG will provide across all areas of the business. The initial focus of the four-year programme will be to drive operational excellence, business development, people development and management control and reporting.
Says Kenard Group managing director Keith Ellis: “With a strong heritage and wealth of experience to draw upon, we anticipate that the SiG programme will build on the many core strengths of the business and already high levels of professionalism and capability within our team.
“We see this as a fantastic opportunity to invest in our ability to deliver globally cost competitive performance, with thought leadership on the latest best practice and applications in manufacturing at its core. We expect SiG to help unlock the full potential of our business, to the benefit of all our stakeholders and industry.”
The SiG programme is endorsed by Airbus, BAE Systems, Boeing, Bombardier, GE, GKN, Leonardo, Lockheed Martin, MBDA, Rolls-Royce, Safran and Thales. To date suppliers on the SiG programme have secured around £2 billion in contracts and around 3,000 jobs.
SiG chief Andy Page says: “Kenard Group has demonstrated that it can win export orders and together we will work to continue to improve their capacity and capability so they are agile enough to compete globally, particularly in the face of aggressive bidding from low cost countries.”
The programme is currently recruiting companies with similar growth ambitions to Kenard to fill the remaining funded places. Companies interested in joining the SiG programme can complete an expression of interest form which is available at www.sig-uk.org/apply or, if they qualify, attend SiG’s annual best practice sharing event on 23 May in Nottingham- http://bit.ly/SiGevent