France-based Daher, which produces the TBM family of turboprops, has revealed plans to buy Quest Aircraft Company in Sandpoint, Idaho, which produces the Kodiak 100.
The acquisition will allow Daher to achieve a milestone by growing its North American operations, company officials said. It also will allow it to “enhance its presence in the general and business aviation segment.”
The Kodiak 100 is a 10-seat, unpressurized, entry-level aircraft in the single-engine turboprop category. Created for humanitarian missions in developing countries, it is capable of operating on uneven and ultra-short runways. With more than 270 Kodiak aircraft in operation, the plane is certified in 67 countries.
“The Quest Aircraft Company’s acquisition represents an additional step in our development in the United States and an overall strengthening of our aircraft manufacturing business,” said Daher CEO Didier Kayat. “In addition to making Daher the world’s seventh largest aircraft manufacturer in business aviation, it provides us with our first industrial site in the United States, thereby reinforcing Daher’s position as a Tier-1 aerospace equipment and systems manufacturer, as well as a logistics and services provider. This key acquisition for Daher is perfectly aligned with the strategy of intensifying our company’s links with the North American market’s leading aerospace players.”
Daher officials add the company intends to offer an “enhanced services and sales network” for the Kodiak.
The family-owned Daher Group plans to develop synergies with the two aircraft product lines, introducing technologies and functionalities for the Kodiak aircraft already featured in the TBM.
“The Kodiak 100 is an aviator’s aircraft, just like the members of our TBM family, and we are happy to bring together two communities of passionate pilots and operators with the acquisition of Quest,” said Nicolas Chabbert, Senior Vice President of the Daher Aircraft Business Unit. “We also are particularly pleased to welcome the 240 employees based in Sandpoint, Idaho to the Daher Group.”
The acquisition’s closing is expected to be completed by the end of 2019, subject to approval by authorities in both countries.
Totally agree with Bob Martilla. Profits rules in business.
I wonder if Quest still had the program that supported charitable organizations in the purchase of Kodiak? I assume that will end.
Sandpoint Idaho is not exactly the hub of aerospace manufacturing. I hate to say it but in two years Quest will out of Sandpoind Idaho because “hand made” is the last thing European manufacturers do any more. Daher will take the entire line out of Idaho to almost no tax Alabama or South Carolina where most everyone thinks a good job is minimum wage. Ask airbus why they are in Alabama. From a purely business view the east coast is where everyone in aerospace from Europe moves to for shorter logistics distances and closer suppliers with lower fixed and variable costs. Being eight thousand miles from France makes this almost inevitable. They wanted the type certificate and they got it and they would be fools not to maximize the economics. I feel for Sandpoint. It’s too bad.