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Specialist skills
“ The third facet is Services which is primarily the polishing of blades and vanes for the engine OEMs as well as a small amount of NDT and testing services. The Services segment is quite different to the other parts of Sigma’ s business in that it’ s a fast turnaround of customers’ own parts as opposed to a process of converting raw materials into a finished product. It represents around ten percent of our turnover and processes product for a broad range of aircraft engines.”
Sigma operates out of four sites: three in the UK and one in Chengdu, China.“ The Hinckley site employs around 150 people and is our center of excellence for bending and fabrication of rigid pipes. Chengdu is one of Hinckley’ s biggest suppliers, sending thousands of detailed parts and machined fittings per month that Hinckley will combine with bent tube to make finished parts for customers. The Farnborough site employs 75 people and is more focused on our airframe business. There is a core of specialist fabrication skills at Farnborough due to the nature of the products that are unique to the site.
“ Our third site in the UK is Sandiacre, just outside Nottingham,” Richard continues.“ Our Sandiacre site polishes blades and vanes for engine OEMs on a fast-turnaround basis. The site employs 50 people, 40 of whom are skilled polishers. Chengdu in China is a key part of our supply chain, has close to 50 machining centers and employs 175 people. Our Chengdu site is one of our differentiators in that we own the business, and it offers a reliable low-cost supply chain solution to our business in the UK and is also able to offer finished parts directly to our customers.” 58