Taking place before local tier restrictions and national lockdowns, Susan Addison, Air Sector Procurement Director for BAE Systems and her team visited Hollygate Aircraft Components (‘Hollygate’), Hyde Group’s Stockport-based specialist facility for the machining of safety-critical aerospace and defence components.

The visit was arranged to update Susan on Hollygate’s programmes and engineering innovations for BAE Systems and to demonstrate how cost efficiency and value for money were driving the business forward with its plans for the future.

Darren Richardson, Managing Director of Hollygate showed Susan and her team around the impressive Stockport site, explaining how the business meets the requirements of BAE Systems, as well as how it is transforming to address emerging and changing market needs through activities such as its recently awarded SC21 Operation Excellence award.

Anthony Hammond, Joint Managing Director of Hyde Aero Products, took Susan and her team through the capabilities and expertise of the wider Hyde group of companies, as well as explaining how it was supporting its customers and employees through the challenges brought on by the COVID 19 pandemic. 

Susan said: “It was my first visit to meet the Hyde Aero team at the Hollygate facility.  I was impressed with the safe working practices that were employed to support the team and enable ongoing operations and I enjoyed hearing about Hyde’s future plans and investments.  I look forward to evolving the joint working practises between BAE Systems and Hyde Group to support our joint future business plans.

Anthony Hammond commented “It was a pleasure to host Susan and her colleagues Paul Jones and Gary Crank for this visit.  Due to the long-standing operational excellence of our relationship, the discussions were almost entirely focussed on the future and it was very interesting to hear about BAE Systems’ plans and strategies, all of which seem to be complementary to those of Hyde Aero Products.”