Incora to Invest US$1.5 Million in Chihuahua

Global supply chain management operator for the aerospace industry Incora, created after the acquisition of Wesco Aircraft by an affiliate of Platinum Energy, will invest US$1.5 million in Chihuahua.

The global aerospace industry has been greatly affected by the significant reduction in demand for air travel that has brought aircraft orders to new lows, which in turn has brought trouble to the entire aerospace supply chain. However, the sector is not paralyzed. Last month, French engine giant Safran announced the construction of a new plant in Chihuahua, which would generate 800 jobs. On Saturday, the state governor Javier Corral and the Ambassador to the US in Mexico Christopher Landau announced that aerospace supply chain operator Incora will follow suit with a US$1.5 million investment in the state, which would generate 240 jobs in its first stage. While Wesco Aircraft already had offices in Chihuahua, Incora’s new investment will allow the company to broaden its supply chain management capabilities in the region.

Incora was created in early 2020 through the acquisition of Wesco Aircraft Holdings by an affiliate of Platinum Energy for US$1.9 billion. The acquisition allowed Platinum Energy to merge its supply chain management services for the aerospace industry with those of Wesco Aircraft, giving the resulting company over 8,400 clients spread through 17 countries. “Bringing Wesco and Pattonair together will create a truly global enterprise, benefiting the combined customer base through increased scale and access to new technologies,” said Louis Samson, Platinum Equity Partner, regarding the acquisition. Incora now offers supply chain services for commercial aerospace, defense, aerospace aftermarket, industrial, automotive and pharmaceutical industries, among others.

The announcement is welcome news at a time when most of the global aerospace industry is suffering as airlines cancel or defer aircraft orders, which led Boeing and Airbus to pause and scale back some of their programs. This, in turn, meant less orders for suppliers, some of which were forced to lay off part of their workforce. In Mexico, about 20,000 aerospace jobs have been lost due to the pandemic, estimated Luis Lizcano, President of FEMIA. However, Lizcano expects that these employees can be reabsorbed by the industry once it bounces back from the pandemic. “We want a gradual reintegration of those who lost their jobs; we do not want to lose that expertise. Remember that aerospace workers have hard-to-find abilities, so the industry wants to keep them,” said Lizcano to El Financiero.