LATÉCOÈRE OPENS NEW PLANT IN BULGARIA

Following the launch of its smart factory in Toulouse–Montredon, the Latécoère Group has opened a new manufacturing plant in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The opening ceremony was attended by Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyco Borissov, Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Dontchev and Minister of Economy Emil Karanikolov. Also present were Ivan Totev, Mayor of Plovdiv, Dimitar Ivanov, Mayor of Maritza, Zdravko Dimitrov, Gouvernor, Eric Lebédel, French Ambassador, Stéphane Delahaye, Chairman of the Franco-Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Serge Durand, Head of Airbus Bulgaria and Latécoère CEO Yannick Assouad.

Financed through the Transformation 2020 plan's competitiveness investment program, the facility will operate as an assembly plant for avionic racks and aerostructures sub-assemblies with a view to recapturing value added by offering a competitive assembly solution working in synergy with the existing French and Czech units.

The Group aims to build up the site from an initial 5,000 square meters to 9,000 square meters with capacity for over 200,000 hours of annual production by the end of 2019. A total investment budget of around €15 million has been allocated to the factory from now until 2020.

Since the start of construction, an ambitious plan has been rolled out to train employees in the aeronautics professions (around 200 people) in line with production forecasts of Airbus programs (A350, A380, A400M and A320). The first product was delivered in early September.

CEO Yannick Assouad said: “In accordance with strategic commitments under the Transformation 2020 plan, Latécoère is dynamically pursuing its transformation in order to optimize its manufacturing facilities. We are proud of having made the first delivery from our new location in Bulgaria.”

About Latécoère

Latécoère is a tier 1 partner to major international aircraft manufacturers (Airbus, Embraer, Dassault, Boeing and Bombardier), in all segments of the aeronautical market (commercial, regional, corporate and military aircraft), specializing in two fields:

• Aerostructures (61% of total revenue): fuselage sections and doors.
• Interconnexion systems (39% of total revenue): onboard wiring, electrical harnesses and avionics bays.

At 31 December 2017, Latécoère employed 4,451 people in 10 different countries. Latécoère, a French corporation (société anonyme) with capital of €188 789 804 divided into 94,744,952 shares with a par value of €2 per share, is listed on Euronext Paris - Compartment B. ISIN codes: FR0000032278 - Reuters: LAEP.PA - Bloomberg: LAT.FP