Aircraft-fastener coating company Incotec Corp. is moving its headquarters and some of its manufacturing to Lancaster as it expands to supply the commercial aviation industry. The Mojave company is remodeling a 20,000-square-foot building and will relocate about 50 employees by the end of the year. Incotec’s expansion takes place as commercial aviation experiences a boom in aircraft manufacturing. The company supplies to Chicago-based Boeing Co. and Airbus SAS of Toulouse, France, two of the world’s largest aircraft companies, which are building new, fuel-efficient models. Other expanding customers include Embraer S.A., of Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil, Bombardier Inc. of Montreal, and Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China, or Comac, of Shanghai. In order to quickly capture this work, the company decided to move into an existing Lancaster building so there were no delays with having to receive building permits or deal with lengthy construction time. “It gives us the opportunity to expand at a rapid pace,” said company founder and Chief Executive Robert Briley. Inctotec coats fasteners – nuts, bolts, screws, rivets, pins – used in attaching pieces together in the aircraft manufacturing process. The coatings are important to protect the aircraft from corrosion and preventing failures in the event of a lightning strike, among other uses. Incotec works directly with aircraft manufacturers and parts makers such as Alcoa Fastening Systems and Precision Castparts Corp. It also sells its coatings independently. The company is capable of coating 17 million fasteners a month. Growth in the commercial aviation industry is spurred by the airlines wanting more fuel efficient aircraft to reduce the expense of rising oil prices, said Neal Dihora, an equity analyst who follows the aviation and aerospace industry for Morningstar Inc. in Chicago. Good news for component and parts suppliers is that the aircraft makers are ramping up production on their backlog. Boeing and Airbus alone account for a backlog of 9,000 aircraft, he added. “What is driving the suppliers is that take-up rate,” Dihora said. Market leader Briley started Incotec – the abbreviation of Innovative Coatings Technology – in 1992 after a 20-year career working at other fastener coating businesses. The company started out in a 7,000-square-foot building at the Mojave Air & Space Port and moved into a new building in 1997 that has since expanded to 40,000 square feet and 170 employees. About 80 percent of the business is supplying to commercial aircraft and about 20 percent for military jets. The company boasts that its fasteners are found on all newly constructed commercial aircraft. New model aircraft the company has supplied for include the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the Airbus A350, the Airbus A320, the C919 passenger jet from Comac, and the Boeing 737 Max, a new family of aircraft that will get a 20 percent to 25 percent better fuel burn when they are delivered in 2017, Briley said. One strength of the company is that it is not tied to a single project, said Vern Lawson, economic development director for the City of Lancaster. “The greater the diversification, the happier they are,” he said. A benefit of Lancaster is the city is more centrally located than Mojave and closer to fastener makers in the San Fernando Valley, South Bay, and Orange County, where four Incotec trucks will travel to pick up uncoated and drop off finished fasteners, Briley said. Incotec’s role in the manufacturing supply chain is such that delays in deliveries cannot happen. Having a second production line in Lancaster will protect the company in the event a natural disaster should damage the Mojave location, Briley said. In fact, Boeing and Airbus both told Incotec they preferred the company to spread its production over two facilities. “It is not uncommon to ask a company if they are a sole source (supplier) to split up or license to have someone else do part of your work,” Briley said. Second coup Lancaster officials were excited about the prospect of another manufacturing company moving into the city. Last year, the city scored a major coup when it got Morton Manufacturing, an aerospace fastener producer, to relocate from Santa Clarita and bring 200 jobs plus another 100 new positions to be added later. Morton will move to a new 86,000 square foot building in the Lancaster Business Park next year. Construction on the new Morton building began in October. The company’s bolts are used for gas-turbine aircraft, certain gas-turbine engines and for industrial use worldwide. Customers include Pratt & Whitney, a division of Hartford, Conn.-based United Technologies Corp.; General Electric Co., of Schenectady, N.Y.; and Rolls-Royce plc, of London. “I have known this is the best place out there to expand manufacturing and the message is finally coming home, said Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris. Incotec has been coating Morton nickel-alloy bolts for years and it is just a coincidence that both companies chose Lancaster. Briley was convinced the city was the right place based on its pro-business stance and the ease of working with City Hall. “They (Morton) indicated they are moving there for the same reasons that I am,” Briley said. Briley looked at locations in Palmdale and Rosamond before settling on a building at West Avenue L12 and 10th Avenue West, a former plumbing contractor business. Briley bought the building for an undisclosed amount and is leasing it to Incotec. He estimates the company will spend up to $500,000 on the expansion, including interior improvements and buying new automated coating equipment. The remodel work will gut the interior, replace the windows, paint the exterior and add flashy enhancements such as quartz countertops. “It will be a real showpiece for us,” Briley said.
Lancaster Lands Aircraft Supplier
