Mountainburg-based aviation company moves to Roland

C.E. Aerospace is moving its jet engine stand production from the Arkansas side of the Fort Smith metro area to Roland, Okla., as part of a $6 million investment to consolidate operations in the 400,000-plus square-foot plant once used by Therma Tru.

C.E. Aerospace builds more than 12 different styles of jet engine stands at a price range between $30,000 to $180,000. The stands hold engines during repairs. The company also is involved in aviation parts repair and distribution.

Cal Edwards, owner of of C.E. Aerospace, said the company now employs about 60 between its 50,000 square-foot aviation parts operation in Mountainburg and two metal fabrication companies in Fort Smith (Absco Metal Fabricators, 1915 S. 11th St.; Rhodes Machine Shop, 320 S. E St.) in Fort Smith). Edwards will consolidate those operations in Roland.

“It will make it a lot easier. We’ve lost several hundred orders in the past year because we couldn’t produce them. So we’re trying to get the companies in one place where we can work together and meet that production,” Edwards told The City Wire.

Edwards said he hopes to increase employment at the plant to 120 no later than March 2010. According to an Oklahoma Department of Commerce press release, the jobs will have an average annual salary of more than $30,000. Edwards said in the ODOC statement that Oklahoma’s Quality Jobs Program incentives and the large facility in Roland made the move “an easy business decision.”

ROLAND REBOUND?
A formal announcement of the deal will be made tonight (June 23) during a meeting of Roland’s economic development committee meeting at the Roland High School cafeteria, said Jeff Roberts, with Hilton Insurance in Roland and chairman of the committee.

Maumee, Ohio-based Therma Tru announced in January it was closing its door manufacturing operations, resulting in the loss of more than 220 jobs. In the January announcement, Therma Tru said production would cease by June. The relatively new plant was completed in 2000 to replace a Therma-Tru plant in Van Buren the door maker first opened in 1962.

Roberts said the committee formed in September knowing that it would soon have a large building to market.

“With this economic development committee, our task was to make sure it didn’t sit empty for years,” Roberts explained.

The city joined a marketing arm of Oklahoma Southeast, an economic development organization that connects a collection of cities with national site location experts. Their first marketing effort was a success when Edwards discovered the building was available and would meet the needs of his consolidation plan, Roberts said.

Roberts said Roland is proud to have the business, but the committee has a regional focus and is grateful the building was able to keep an employer in the Fort Smith metro area.

“He (Edwards) could have just as easily found a location outside this Fort Smith metro market area,” Roberts said.

The committee is not resting with this first success. Roberts said a large warehouse and a tract of land is next on the committee agenda to convert to a job creation purpose.

“We think Roland is the undiscovered area of the Fort Smith metro market because of the access to the interstate (Interstate 40) and access to other assets of the area,” Roberts said. “This side of the (Arkansas-Oklahoma state) line has not developed in the past few years, but we think this might be the stimulus to get that changed.”

AVIATION GROWTH?
Edwards is also confident of new growth.

He said the sale of aviation parts and service declined in the past 12 months. However, as the airlines park aircraft because of fewer passengers, engine stands produced by C.E. Aerospace are needed to store engines removed from the parked planes. For that reason, Edwards said, his business is doing well despite the slowdown, but he is eager to see the sector begin to, well, take off.

“A couple of months ago, we started seeing the airline side pick up. I think it’s starting to recover. It’s not recovering real fast, but it is recovering,” Edwards said.

With C.E. Aerospace employees in Saudi Arabia and Indonesia and with FedEx and American Airlines as some of his largest customers, Edwards also is hopeful the international aviation market will soon rebound.

“A lot of people don’t know that we’re here in Mountainburg … and that it’s an international company with international orders,” Edwards said.