International Sales Drive Strategy for Hawker Beechcraft

Editorial Staff

Tuesday, April 17, 2007 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Hawker Beechcraft Corp is significantly expanding its international presence, with its head of international sales undertaking global trips and targeting Europe, Latin America, and Asia as key growth regions.
This expansion is a strategic response to increasing international demand, which has grown from 25% to nearly 40% of sales and is projected to reach 50% in the next decade, partly due to a weakening dollar and increased global wealth.
The company plans to adopt a customer-centric and region-specific approach, tailoring aircraft designs and services to target markets, and expects to announce new FBO and service center partners in countries like India and Russia.

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The head of Hawker Beechcraft Corp’s international sales, Sean McGeough, has gotten busy with trips planned for the U.K., Dubai, Brazil, New Delhi, and Brazil, as the March 26 formed company gears up to expand its international presence. The company has broken the world into three major areas of growth — Asia, Europe and Latin America. With government obstacles still a substantial barrier in Asia, the company expects the other two regions to see more immediate growth. The push is intended to add increased support for the company’s more than 100 sales and service centers worldwide. Hawker Beechcraft already expects to announce a partner for an FBO and service center in India within the next two months and hopes to follow suit in Russia.

All of this addresses sales trends that have seen international demand increase (thanks in part to a weakening dollar coupled with increased global wealth) from a 25 percent market share ten years ago to close to 40 percent today. As analysts conjure numbers closer to 50 percent sales attributed to areas outside North America within the next ten years, Hawker Beechcraft intends to respond with customer-centric and therefore region-centric designs. Such aircraft would be tailored to perform with appropriate range and capacities for their target markets. Jim Schuster, Hawker Beechcraft’s chief executive, told The Wichita Eagle, “We’re doing it country by country, region by region.”