Bembridge-based manufacturing and aviation services company, Britten-Norman, has come out in support of ‘Brexit’ – the UK’s departure from the EU – stating that the largest single threat to the business comes from EU directives.
Since its formation in the early 1950s, two decades before the UK’s joining of the European Economic Community, Britten-Norman has been a key part of a once thriving UK aircraft manufacturing industry. 60 years on, the Company is now the UK’s only privately owned commercial aircraft manufacturer.
Many of the former household names of the UK aircraft industry have now either been forced into liquidation or else been conglomerated into multinational organisations that are able to withstand the barriers to entry that have been progressively erected within the industry. Regulations are, for the most part, written around the largest entities in European aviation, primarily focussed on Toulouse, and are inappropriate for small to medium sized entities where a leaner, more entrepreneurial approach is required to remain competitive and to be internationally successful.
The ‘Europeanisation’ of aviation sector regulations had the potential to bring great benefit to all aircraft manufacturers and operators within the EU, but the application of regulation throughout the bloc is anything but standardised, with most countries either adopting a protectionist approach to their own aviation sectors or else imposing national environmental or health & safety legislation in a manner that deharmonises the application of regulation; an aircraft adopted onto the European register in Italy does not automatically qualify for adoption onto the European register in Germany.
The Islander aircraft, for which Britten-Norman is best known, was originally designed and built at Bembridge. The aircraft has been in continuous manufacture since its maiden
flight in 1965 and for over 45 years the base components of the aircraft have been built under sub contract in Romania. The materials and components used to manufacture the aircraft have historically been sourced from the UK and across Europe; in more recent times the Company has had to look further afield for its supply chain.
Britten-Norman’s Chief Executive, William Hynett, commented:
“We have strong links into Europe through our sub contract manufacturing in Romania as well as with important repeat customers in countries like Germany and France, but our future lies in our broader international reach and the customer network that we have grown through 120 countries.
“Our success over the decades has come from selling a product that customers around the world need. The largest single threat to our business comes from EU directives and the other regulations imposed by its various institutions – these burdens are already forcing us to migrate part of our supply chain and some of our jobs outside the EU and we predict that this is a trend
that is likely to continue should Britain choose to remain within the EU.”Article continues below this advertisement
As a key supplier to a number of important institutional and government customers within the UK and around the world, Britten-Norman has always adopted an apolitical stance. On the key cross-party issue of the UK’s referendum on the EU, however, the Company has decided to break silence and to back Business for Britain and its quest to Vote Leave.
To assist in raising awareness, Britten-Norman will be taking part in a Vote Leave banner towing tour of Great Britain between the 8th-22nd June. The tour will be flown in a turboprop Islander aircraft painted in the aircraft’s 50th anniversary livery.
