Revima has reorganised and rebranded, and is looking at future expansion.

Following the 2017 acquisition of a majority stake in REVIMA Group by private equity firm Argos Wityu, the company has now unveiled a new brand identity and broader service offering.

Olivier Legrand, president, says the plan is to grow the company and develop outside its base at Caudebec-en-Caux in Normandy, which will strengthen its position in the market. To this end, it has reorganised its service offering into five commercial brands:

• Repair & overhaul: APUs, landing gear and associated LRUs
• Engine parts repair: sheet metal work activity for civil and military applications
• Material solutions: serviceable parts and complete assemblies trading activity (previously named Normandy Aero Spares)
• Fleet management: digital solutions providing advanced diagnosis and prognosis for optimised APU operating and maintenance costs
• Leasing: APU and landing gear leasing activity

Some of this will come from organic growth. This includes upgrading the facilities; introducing new machinery and processes; additional training for management and personnel; and a digital transformation utilising a new production system, connected machinery and Lean processes.

A recent APU success has been a long-term TSCP700 maintenance contract with major US carrier.

Landing gear activities are expanding rapidly: the A320 Family workload has quadrupled in four years; the 747-8 is being introduced this year; A330 capability has grown to include the enhanced model, and significant investment is being made in A380. He adds that the company is the market leader for 777-300ER.

Malaysia Airlines is the latest customer announcement, for 19 A330 aircraft, covering overhaul of landing gear and related components, a component exchange pool, and the provision of engineering and on-site support.

The engine repair business will be extended to cover more than sheet metal work, which may be through acquisition, while material solutions will grow significantly, also supplying used serviceable material for the APU activities.

Fleet management has been using the WILCO system from Flight Watching for some time. This monitors all APU standard and abnormal reports, while the aircraft is operating on the ground.

It also collects maintenance messages and cockpit warnings that are correlated to APU parameters in flight, in order to identify root causes of degradation. Preventive alerts have also been set up by REVIMA fleet monitoring teams to avoid APU abnormal shut downs during turnarounds.

Etihad was the launch customer for this service, with the latest addition being Air Serbia, for the Pratt & Whitney Canada APS3200, and Honeywell 131-9A APUs installed on A320 Family aircraft.

The first overseas expansion will be Revima Asia Pacific, a new $25 million landing gear overhaul facility in Thailand.

The 12,000m2 building will be located in the Amata City Chonburi Industrial Park, which is a Free Zone in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) south of Bangkok, close to Suvarnabhumi International Airport, U-Tapao International Airport – where a growing maintenance hub is being developed, the seaport, and main highway connections.

It is expected to be certified in January 2020, with the first overhauled landing gear redelivered in the first quarter. This will be for an A320 Family aircraft, which will be followed by the Boeing 737 and possibly ATR and Embraer E-Jet at a later date.

Eventual capacity will be 200 shipsets per year, while the workforce will grow to 250 personnel.

Initially, there will be staff transfers from France but training of local employees in France, and there are plans to link with schools, technical schools and universities in Bangkok to provide the right calibre of personnel.

The new facility will also be something of a laboratory, as it will be digitally connected from the start. This includes communication between machines, technical documentation, warehouses and customer systems. Once established, these will be introduced in France.