With its headquarters at Peterborough Airport in Ontario, Canada, Maintenance Repair and Operations (MRO) business Flying Colours Corp is currently expanding at all three of its facilities in Canada, the US and Singapore.
Following an investment of approximately CAD$25m it’s soon to be completed structure at Peterborough will house a climate controlled, dedicated paint-shop, a spacious hangar large enough to hold up to A220-size aircraft, as well as offices, customer meeting rooms, interiors workshops and a board room. The facility which is due to open early 2020 will add a further 100,00 square feet to the Peterborough footprint.
The new Peterborough structure follows the opening earlier this year of a fifth hangar at its Chesterfield, St. Louis facility in the US.
It’s been a big year for the MRO business, which has also seen growth in its Singapore where it is located within the Bombardier Service Centre located at Seletar Airport. Speaking at this year’s National Business Aviation Association’s (NBAA’s) Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (BACE), Kevin Kliethermes, director of sales said: “We re-signed our agreement with Bombardier earlier this year. They are looking to quadruple the footprint of their Singapore facility and we’re growing there with them, so we’ll need to increase our head count.”
He added that with the growth across all its facilities “Flying Colours is currently on a recruitment drive. This year we’ve recruited around 100 staff across both our Peterborough and St Louis facilities. And it’s not stopping there. We’re also offering internships, visiting the tech. schools, we’re actively trying to recruit,” he continued. The company is also looking to expand its presence in Europe too, having recently appointed a sales person there.
It’s not a bad problem to have, but Kliethermes agrees “to a certain extent we’ve been a victim of our own success. We’ve grown significantly and now we need to ensure that we can staff our expanding operations. But it’s not just about employing staff that want to work, we’re a family-owned business and it’s important that new staff fit in with the team and our culture.”
But, he concludes “managing growth is always a struggle but it’s a good struggle and with the opening of the new facility in Peterborough on the horizon things are looking up.”
