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Growing an MRO

AUTUMN 2019 (ISSUE 11) Business Aviation Magazine - Text Only

Jim Hansen, Founder, Owner and General Manager of Western Jet Aviation on the challenges involved in founding and growing an MRO.

Q: What made you want to get into MRO in the first place?

JH: Well, if we go back into my personal history, it goes back to me graduating at the Northrop Institute of Technology in December 1972. The Institute is adjacent to LAX in Los Angeles. I was taken on by a small MRO outfit at Van Nuys Airport doing maintenance on small and mid-size twin engine aircraft.

That led to me gradually working my way up to Gulfstream G2s and I had a fair bit of experience working on G2s and G3s. Then the company I was working for went into their fifth or sixth buyout and I decided the time had come to fulfill a long-standing ambition of mine to go out on my own.

I gave notice and fortunately for me, I had a very strong and loyal following in the customer base. A number of them came to me and said, what are you doing? Where are you going? How can we help? These offers of support came from across the board, from owners of small turboprops on to owners and operators of Gulfstream aircraft.

Q: Even finding suitable premises, never mind all the tooling that you would require, is a tough ask for someone starting out in MRO. How did you manage?

JH: The people who’d offered me support put up some money and I knew I had their business. I then ran around finding every piece of equipment I could lay my hands on. I needed a set of jacks, a power cart and tools, and I added a bunch of ladders from Home Depot, really, whatever I could get. It was a really basic start.

From there it was pretty much a case of grafting my way up, working on airplanes myself, by myself, 18 – 20 hours a day, every day. The customers starting coming in, one by one. I made really sure that I did great work for them and they were really supportive and appreciative. And little by little the business grew.

Q: How long did it take you to turn a profit?

JH: That was the really good part. Because I was operating a really tight ship, doing so much myself, to my huge surprise, I turned in a profit at the end of my very first year, and we’ve never looked back since. I was shocked. We had a hydraulic mule that was terrible, looked terrible and leaked, but customers knew we were just getting started and they were really good to us.

What we had going for us was that they knew that I understood aircraft and understood what they needed. They wanted their airplanes repaired economically, in a manner that would keep those planes flying safely – and they wanted it done in a timely manner. This we did, time after time, and it won us a great deal of repeat business.

In MRO, if you can satisfy the customer, because nobody wants to spend more than they have to on their aircraft, then you get repeat business. On top of this you get great word-of-mouth recommendations. They tell their friends they know someone who can do a great job on their aircraft at a fair price, and your customer base grows. To this day I have never had a sales team at WJA.

I have to say that I was blessed with some of the greatest customers you could find. They knew we had a limited staff in those early days and I was always very clear about what we could and could not do. If something was going to take five days I’d tell them that and I wouldn’t try to do it in four. But I wouldn’t take six days on it either.

They knew I was being honest with them and throughout the 20 years we have now been in business we have been pretty much on time and on budget 99 percent of the time. That is what customers look for and respect in this industry.

Q: Are you providing services for a range of different aircraft types?

JH: Right now, on the maintenance side, we are Gulfstream specific. In avionics, however, we are multi-line. We will do avionics upgrades across a wide range of aircraft types, right up to wi-fi installations and LED lighting, whatever the latest upgrades are that people are looking for.

We do not do interior upgrades or refreshes. We have an expert interior shop partner organization that does these. We pick what we are good at, and we stay with that.

Q: How does the family side of things work with MRO, which is very time intensive?

JH: It’s great. My son joined the business about ten years ago. He is now my IT guy. My other son went through tech school and he is now our avionics specialist. My daughter works in the parts department, helping to buy and sell parts.

Incidentally, the parts side of MRO is very important. Being able to source great parts for our clients at very affordable prices is a key part of the value that we bring to the table. This is very much one of our strengths. Many of the customers let us do the parts buying for them and that brings great benefits for them in terms of very significantly discounted pricing.

Q: So, it may have been a hard start, but looking back, has it all been worthwhile?

JH: Absolutely. We have now been in the business for twenty years and things have developed very well indeed. We moved into our current facility as a shared facility back in 2005. Our employee base grew and grew and we have now taken over the whole facility. In 2007, I wanted to add charter so I founded Western Air Charter (WACI) with a $5000 capital investment. Within one short year, we received our Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) for worldwide operations, had our first GIVSP based in Kuala Lumpur, and turned a profit. Within four years, we had expanded to ten aircraft based around the globe, with profits increasing by an astounding 25% every over year. I sold the company in 2016 to concentrate on what we do best – maintenance and avionics – and since then, Western Jet has enjoyed significant growth year on year with a tremendous record for staff retention.

When Western Jet Aviation first opened its doors on September 13, 1999 my first employee was Cheryl Shaw. I’d worked with Cheryl at the Jet Center for years, going back to 1989. Cheryl is still my executive assistant today.

It is my firm belief that a strong business is founded upon good people, who value doing the job right and exceeding customers’ expectations. This belief is shared by the nearly 80 employees of Western Jet today.

This Fall we will be celebrating Western Jet’s 20th anniversary, a real milestone event for the company. I feel exceptionally blessed to be surrounded by the best employees, customers and local service providers I could wish for. VNY Airport management and personnel have also been very supportive of us down the years. These factors have all helped to make Western Jet Aviation a world-class organization.

Q: What are your plans for the future?

JH: We’re very much “steady as she goes” here. I am a very healthy 67, with absolutely no plans to retire anytime soon. I have great customers and great employees and I love what I do. So, this is great for me and it’s great for the family and everyone involved.