Surface Transforms (LSE:SCE) Chief Executive Officer Kevin Johnson caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss receiving the AS9100 certification and its importance to the company
Q1: An RNS out on Monday regarding the AS9100 certificate, can you tell us what that quality standard is?
A1: Very simply AS translates as Aerospace Standard and it’s an adopted standard globally by that industry. What it really means is that if you want to work in that industry, you need to have that standard and for a company like ourselves, that means developing your business processes and using those business processes to drive towards that standard and to deliver quality to the customers’ requirements.
Q2: So what makes this certificate so important?
A2: I suppose it’s a bit like learning to drive and passing your driving test, if you want to drive a car you need a driver’s licence and so if you want to operate in the aerospace market, you need to have AS9100.
Q3: What does it mean for Surface Transforms to receive the AS9100?
A3: Firstly, it’s very exciting. Obviously, it’s an important standard and it’s not easy to get and we’re very pleased to have it. What it really does is it starts to build credibility in the market for us, particularly in the aerospace market for obvious reasons, but also this standard is recognised across other industries and our other key market is the automotive market so it gives us credibility there too. At the business level, our customers are starting to get real confidence from us achieving AS9100. As you know, we signed an agreement back in September last year for a pre-production contract which will mature by 2018 and one of the key things there was achieving this standard as part of that schedule and I’m pleased to sat we’re on track and our customers very pleased with how we’re progressing as well.
Q4: The RNS also talked about the aerospace programs, how are they progressing?
A4: The key thing for us was this first contract we won gave us three things. The first was a way for us to deliver profitability and cash generation by 2018 by achieving sales maturity of £1.3 million for that contract but that really led us into the bigger aerospace market which we see as the real key. With that, I’m pleased to say that we are continuing that testing and we’re now seeing as we progress through this first military contract, we can start to see that movement in testing and product adoption into the small commercial civil aircraft and not only that, we’re pleased to receive new orders which, if you like, further strengthens our pipeline, not just in the short and medium term but in the long term as it’s been identified now that our products are suitable for the next generation or class of helicopters. So we can now start to see the pipeline developing, not just in the near term but with civil aircraft in the medium term and in the long term we’ve got the helicopters.
Q5: Is there anything that investors should be looking out for during the rest of the year?
A5: Well our other key market is the automotive market and in line with the aerospace market, we have to be able to achieve the quality standard for the automotive guys as well. So they have a slightly different standard and it’s called TS 16949, we’ve been working on that and we expect to make an announcement in relation to that in due course.
