Adhetec, the French company specialized in industrial adhesives, is constantly striving to promote its products which are already in the public eye – like the graphics it provides for the vertical fins of the American company Frontier Airlines, and the stickers marking special events especially at Air France (JonOne, Paris 2024) and interior markings in all aircraft cabins. But it is also working in parallel on its internationalization, explains Alexis Gabillon, its Chairman and CEO since July 2016.
What is your best seller?
Our flagship product for aircraft exteriors is called 13880®: we use it for all exterior markings and all liveries. We participated in Air Caraïbes’ livery, for example, where we produced all the green leaves with color gradients. We printed them on our adhesive films, which are inserted in our paint systems. It is as resistant as a paint coating and we can very easily repair it if damaged: it is a solution which is durable but easily repairable. It is a highly flexible solution and on some aircraft on which we applied films several years ago. These films have retained their brightness, their rendering and their colors. The films we installed on the Malaysia Airlines A380s in 2012 are still on the aircraft and in good condition. It is truly a long-lasting, durable and attractive solution. It is comparable to a paint coating.
And on aircraft interiors?
After developing our activity on aircraft exteriors, with technical markings and decorations, we are becoming more and more interested in what happens in the cabin and we intend to be increasingly active over the coming months to offer solutions for decoration or advertising, markings, etc. We are already a surface protection specialist in the aerospace, automotive and railway sectors.
For many years Adhetec has been accompanying its customers for marking and surface protection systems inside the cabin. When we talk about marking, it is, for example, all the small writing found in an aircraft or the advertising stickers. Regarding surface protection, this consists of films and foams provided to protect the cabin elements during the assembly or maintenance phases, to avoid them being damaged, for example films to protect the carpet, the seats, the galleys, etc. All this material is truly adapted to the product: it sticks correctly but leaves no adhesive residues. Most of our products are flight compatible, we have in particular a protective covering for carpets, it can remain in place during convoying flights and be removed at the very last moment, leaving the aircraft in perfect condition.
One of the specific features of our activity is that it is POA-certified (EASA Production Organization Approval), which means we can issue Release Certificates. This requires a Design Organization Approval (DOA) and this is something we know how to handle. If a company wants us to manage all its interior markings on its behalf, we can contact our DOA partners to generate a set of approved data and release the materials with approved data as well as a release certificate which will allow the label to be installed directly inside the aircraft. This especially concerns safety labels.
What is your position in the market?
Our market share is relatively modest. There are many players in this sector: we are going to find a certain number of companies with offers generally different from our own but which cover a part of our range, or airlines which have small in-house workshops capable of producing some labels. We will bring professional management, follow-up, stock and reactivity. We will also bring superior quality materials which will pass all the regulatory requirements, this is not necessarily the case of all the materials on the market.
Do you think you can develop an exterior film compatible with the 787?
The 787 has a certain number of specific characteristics on the vertical fin. We are in discussions with Boeing to determine how we could integrate with the vertical fin with respect to their specific constraints, which concern laminar flow characteristics to be preserved because they contribute to the aircraft’s performance. I think that it is just a question of working it out with Boeing.
What developments will we see at Adhetec over the next few months?
We are going to continue along the same lines. Adhetec is a company which puts customer service first and foremost: our on-time delivery rate is better than 99%, and we export very little nonconformity to our customers – it is still too much but very little with respect to what we handle. It is one of the key directions we absolutely want to maintain.
The second direction is innovation, bringing solutions to the market, films which perfectly integrate in the paint systems, etc. We have several projects in this area.
The last direction is internationalization. We are especially going to work closer with our American customer Boeing with which we have a multi-annual single-source contract. We absolutely want it to be renewed when it ends, and we want to make certain that Boeing does not even consider looking elsewhere. This exclusive three-year contract concerns exterior technical markings; and we have just validated a product for surface protection in the interior of aircraft, our 301 foam, which is now registered in their BMS (Boeing Material Spec.). This shows that the product is perfectly compatible with all their materials and can be used in their workshops.
In a word, we are there to develop our activity in the cabin, we have many projects for the company and are going to keep our DNA: operational excellence, innovation and international development.
What is your current impact abroad?
We have three persons based abroad. One is based in Madrid and covers Spain and Portugal. Another is based in Seattle and covers the Americas. The last is based in Singapore and covers the whole of Asia. These are sales posts. We are going to reinforce the North American part with a Product Support Engineer and open up a support, storage, prototyping and production activity in Seattle. I think this will represent around ten persons over the next two or three years – we currently have a staff of around 120.
We will also need to create production activity in North America, linked with the North American market. This is the direction of history: the distances are enormous, some of our products are very large and the volume-to-value ratio means that it makes sense to be local.
Alexis Gabillon tells us about his career path
I previously worked at Lisi Aerospace, the European leader for attachment systems and fasteners for aircraft interiors and structures. The group also had a “floor coverings” activity which has since been sold off. I entered the company fifteen years ago as a young engineer. I was responsible for technical sales and then account management for Brazil, Spain and Portugal – I also opened a small sales office in Spain at the time. Next, I was in charge of account management for Airbus France. Then I developed a technical sales team at European level to promote the attachment systems.
Source : Le journal de l’Aviation
