ThyssenKrupp Services forms global aerospace materials business

Duesseldorf-based ThyssenKrupp Services AG, one of the five business segments of the ThyssenKrupp Group, has made the purchase to expand its aerospace materials services. The acquisition will combine Apollo’s largely European and Far Eastern businesses with ThyssenKrupp Services’ largely USA based operations to form a global enterprise with 30 locations in 13 countries and a turnover in excess of $700 million. The new business creates the first global service provider able to offer products and services on a world-wide basis while tailoring local processing and delivery services to meet the needs of each customer individually, it is said. Apollo’s CEO Stuart Wilkins is appointed President of the new division, which will be called ThyssenKrupp Aerospace. Apollo was a public company from 1988 until 2000. It was acquired by the Murray Group in 2004 since and in the last three years it has opened facilities in China and India and expanded its operations in the UK, Australia and continental Europe. It has 451 employees worldwide. Aviation Metals won Airbus supplier of the year awards in 2005 and 2006. ThyssenKrupp Services AG is provides materials and industrial services and raw materials through over 600 sites in 30 countries. It supplies the aerospace industry with subsidiaries in Brazil, France, the UK, Germany, and North America. In 2006 it acquired the aerospace distribution interests of Alcoa which included business in the UK, Europe and the USA. "The expansion of the aerospace business has a great strategic significance for us,” said Joachim Limberg, executive board member at ThyssenKrupp Services. “With our supply chain management solutions, we already have a strong footing in the aerospace industry. This acquisition secures us a worldwide access to all the well-known aircraft manufacturers and their key suppliers. This is an important and sustained step as an internationally recognised systems supplier to the aerospace industry."