Sum of Its Parts

GlobalParts.aero uses array of bizav tools to expand

Sure, the sales team at GlobalParts.aero could drive to the parking lot at a fixed-base operator, walk through the front door and talk to the FBO’s management team about buying parts. Or, the sales team could land at the airport, taxi up to the FBO, purchase fuel and start a conversation about spares.

“We’re coming in from the other side of the fence. We’re in the business, we operate aircraft as well and while we’re there we can ask, ‘Do you buy parts from us? If not, why not?’ There’s that opportunity at every stop we make,” said Dylan Lamb, chief pilot and account manager for aviation parts supplier GlobalParts.aero.

The majority of GlobalParts.aero’s daily work is done over the telephone and through email, but much of that work is a result of relationships the company has built with owner-operators, fleet operators, charter and fractional companies, and maintenance providers across the country. Based in Augusta, Kansas, which is just east of Wichita, GlobalParts.aero operates a mix of piston, turboprop and jet aircraft to build those relationships.

“The aviation industry is completely about relationships, and we notice a boost in our business relationship with a customer when we are able to get in front of that customer,” said Malissa Nesmith, vice president and chief operating officer of GlobalParts.aero. “People are looking for someone they can trust will take care of them. The face-to-face interaction helps solidify those types of business relationships, and that’s where the King Air comes into play as a critical business tool.”

Added Lamb, “Some customers want to buy purely based on the price you quote them, but 90 percent that we deal with also factor in the support that we deliver along with the part. For them, the relationship is just as important as the product we’re providing.”

From the basement up

Building relationships is how Troy Palmer grew the business from operating out of his basement to one that employs more than 100 people today.

In 2003, Palmer started selling excess parts from Raytheon Aircraft Company’s inventory. Raytheon Aircraft warehoused the parts and shipped, Palmer handled the sales. Nesmith joined him in 2004 and in 2007 they took the leap from being brokers to creating a stocking distribution company.

“Raytheon had sold the company so it changed to Hawker Beechcraft, and they put the legacy inventories up for bid,” Nesmith said. “That’s when several Wichita-area investors, including myself, came in with Troy and we bought that division out of Hawker Beechcraft. They sold us nearly 64,000 individual part numbers.”

Many liquidators bid on the inventory, but GlobalParts.aero was planning to stock the inventory. That appealed to Hawker Beechcraft, which would still need some of the parts on its production lines.

“We were able to establish a relationship with Hawker Beechcraft where if there was a requirement for those parts, they would still be able to access those and buy them back from us. That made supply chain happy and the finance department happy,” Nesmith said. “So we built a 100,000-square-foot warehouse out in Augusta, and we brought all the inventory into our stock.”

Not only did they need a building, they needed more than the 12 employees they had at the time along with a computer software system and more. Once they built the infrastructure, though, it allowed them to begin distributing for other manufacturers: B/E Aerospace, GKN Aerospace and Shadin Avionics, among others. They stock more than 90,000 parts, and in late 2015 GlobalParts.aero announced a collaboration with Bombardier Business Aircraft to take over the primary responsibility for all planning, stocking and distribution of parts for the Learjet 20, Learjet 30 and Learjet 50 series aircraft. Nesmith said the company’s 2007 experience with taking over the Hawker Beechcraft inventory gave them the ability to handle a project of this size.

GlobalParts.aero now has 110 employees and five buildings in Augusta, which is Palmer’s hometown, along with offices in Oklahoma, Florida and Georgia. Over the past few years the company has added capabilities to support the parts distribution business, including a component repair shop and a structural overhaul and repair facility, which allow GlobalParts.aero to control prices and turn-times instead of using a third-party. In 2014, the company added build-to-print part manufacturing to support the production lines at major OEMs like Boeing and Gulfstream.

From provider to operator

GlobalParts.aero’s first business aircraft purchase was in 2014 when Palmer took delivery of a new Beechcraft Bonanza G36 at the factory, which is just a few miles down the highway from the business he founded.

Lamb, who grew up in Augusta with Palmer, had already joined the GlobalParts.aero sales team with the anticipation that he would also become the company’s chief pilot when they added an airplane. He said he flew the Bonanza about 100 hours the first year they had it, including frequent trips to Kansas City and Oklahoma City, where the structural repair station is located near Wiley Post Airport.

“The Bonanza was our first aircraft and everyone told us, ‘Just wait, you’re going to be looking for a King Air pretty quick,’” said Nesmith, who worked at Raytheon Aircraft from 1998-2001.

They were right. GlobalParts.aero still operates the Bonanza, but last year the company purchased a 1996 Beechcraft King Air C90A from one of their customers.

“The King Air came from Executive AirShare, out of their fractional ownership program,” Nesmith said. “Because we know Executive AirShare, we were confident in the maintenance and how it had been operated. It came pretty nicely pimped out, too. It had a new interior and new avionics. It was like a brand new aircraft.”

Since acquiring the King Air C90A in February 2015, GlobalParts.aero has flown it on 130 missions to 30 different cities, racking up about 200 hours. Being in the middle of the country makes most of their trips short hauls and allows for same-day travel that commercial flights out of Wichita don’t afford. Management and sales team members use the aircraft to attend trade shows across the United States, visit satellite offices or meet at customers’ locations.

“The King Air really gives us the flexibility we need,” said Lamb, who is typed in the King Air 350, has more than 3,000 flight hours and was an instructor for FlightSafety International for 11 years before joining GlobalParts.aero in 2012. “We’ve flown with every seat filled and we can go into any airport we need to. The King Air is just so dependable and stable and safe. I’ve made several trips that I wouldn’t have made if I wasn’t so confident in the airplane.”

Also in 2015, GlobalParts.aero purchased a quarter of a 1998 Beechjet 400A based at Stearman Field in Benton, about 15 miles from its headquarters. They have flown the Beechjet about 20 hours, mostly on coastal missions or when weather needs to be flown over.

The company is also a Wheels Up member and has used its membership to transport a group of 10 employees on a King Air 350i.

“Wheels Up is a great supplement to the air trans­portation we own,” Nesmith said, “and just as important, Wheels Up gives us access to a great network of aviation-related companies to meet and build relationships within the aviation community.”

While parts for the King Air line continue to be GlobalParts.aero’s most distributed products, the company has expanded well beyond its initial offering with a continuous focus on relationship building.

“With the growth of the company will come growth of the flight department,” Lamb said. “I see maybe a King Air 200 or 350 in the future – the King Air is really the perfect aircraft for the flights we make.”