However, Farnborough is not just a playing field for large prime contractors and tier one suppliers, it is also a beneficial circuit for SMEs in the components industry, particularly from the US.

Searching for greater productivity and facing rising airfares, smaller companies visiting the show need to reap maximum benefit from the visit. This has prompted the British American Business Council (BABC) to organise a trade mission comprised of technology focused, middle-market manufacturing companies from Southern California.

Relationship building

The delegation of eight southern California companies will arrive in the UK one week ahead of the opening of the Farnborough Air Show and tour the UK’s aerospace manufacturing regions, including the most significant, the North of England. The mission will concentrate on fostering relationships between tier two and three companies in the UK for the purposes of joint ventures, technology transfer and inward investment, allowing the US companies greater access through partnerships to the European industry.

Jeremy Davies, chairman of BABC Los Angeles, will lead the mission to the UK and believes this will serve as a great opportunity for those participating companies, as well as the prospective UK regions. “The collaboration will provide the California companies with the opportunity to grow and expand into the EU market, using the UK as a platform,” says Davies.

UK opportunities

While in the North of England, US executives will have the opportunity to schedule one-on-one meetings with carefully chosen potential partner companies – UK SMEs in similar technology fields, keen to identify areas of collaboration. This screening process in the UK will be organised by the Northwest Development Agency and the North West Aerospace Alliance, one of Europe’s largest aerospace cluster organisations. Together these agencies have selected a group of aerospace manufacturing companies from the North of England to attend the meetings, as well as organised site visits and receptions for the visiting delegation.

Steven Broomhead, chief executive of the Northwest Development Agency, sees this type of programme as a way of fostering stronger relations with other manufacturing regions and developing the industry in the UK.

“The high value manufacturing companies in the North of England will be the keys to our future success of the region in this industry. With global collaboration, we can add to the new technologies employed in the region to grow our already strong manufacturing heritage,” says Broomhead.

Further industrial partnering programs are planned in a variety of different manufacturing sectors over the coming months, focused around some of the larger European trade shows.

For those wishing to learn more about the North of England or joining future trade delegations to the North of England, please contact Ed Pennington at the North of England Inward Investment Agency in Chicago. Tel: (847) 593 6020; or email: ed.pennington@thenoe.com