GKN Aerospace has done business in El Cajon for 71 years since October on West Bradley Avenue. On Dec. 17, GKN Aerospace held a grand opening of its new $55 million, 150,000 square-foot second facility on Weld Boulevard in El Cajon. This state-of-the-art facility meets GKN Aerospace’s commitment to innovation and its role in meeting the growing demand for Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) services, position the facility as a hub for cutting-edge aerospace technology and job creation. Having had MRO services for 42 years, the new facility will move all MRO operations to the new facility.
GKN Aerospace Engines President Joakim Andersson said GKN Aerospace is a two-division company listed from the United Kingdom.
“One is in engines, which I lead, and one is a structure division, which is working on aircraft bodies, wings, and air frames. If you look at the customer base, the wings, fuselage, and things like that is linked to what we directly for Lockheed, and other such entities. On the engine side, we make complete engines for fighter jets, Rolls -Royce Griffon, being a specialist in being a partner with all the big original equipment manufacturers, like General Electric. Rolls-Royce in the UK.,” he said. “Keeping on the engine business, we are a $2 billion business, serving different locations around the world. We have 12 locations in the United States. Our largest location is here in El Cajon with more than 1,000 employees.”
Andersson said the facility here has two businesses in San Diego. One, the world leading provider of military ducts, the cases on the engines for the F-35, F-15, F-16, F-22. On every military platform in the US, GKN is making the ducts here in California.”
Andersson said the other side is the aviation repair business, which is where the new facility comes in.
“That business is to support every engine that is out flying. Mainly commercial single engines, where we work very much on the CFM56, LEAPS, GTF engines. It is all the major platforms. Those commercial engines, what we do here is trying to be niched into repair products on the engine,” he said. “It is also going into the overhauls shop, where you take the engine apart, and some of those engines need to be overhauled to bring them back to new conditions. That is what we call MRO. That is the niche area we are in there. Right now, we are investing $55 million to create additional capacity for the growth of all the aircraft of the world and there are more and more flying. The second thing is adding capabil¬ity in making sure that we have a state-of-the-art business. We have had the repair business here for 42 years. We increased that capacity and capability both in Europe and Asia. With that, we have used the latest technology into building a banner facility here, upscaling our capabilities for our US customers in US commercial markets.”
Andersson said today that it has more than 200 employees in the repair business and expects this business to grow 50% over the next few years. He said the key thing they expect is to enhance bringing in more business and staying competitive and keep that workforce, and potential growth of workforce.
Andersson said GKN believes in being active in every community it is located at, especially with community colleges, dedications, and support the society everywhere it works, and gives each entity leeway on how they participate in the community due to the different cultures in the communities they work in.
GKN Aerospace Employee Communications and Engagement Leader Amelia Desiderio said there is a diversity of culture in El Cajon, and being in the area for so long, it focuses on that cultural diversity of its workforce and one reason it wanted to continue to grow in El Cajon.
“We have a really dedicated, very talented, highly skilled workforce here, and it is all because of the high talents we have here in East County. In terms of other commitments that we have to the community, we have resource groups at our site based on the need here and the demographics of our employees. We are willing to form new groups as well onsite to support each other. The San Diego community has been extremely good to us. We work with many organizations here like the East County Economic Development Council, partnering with them not only to serve the community in different ways and volunteer events, but also, they have given us many benefits as well as in creating this new building, putting on our opening event. We have been working closely with them and their resources to the community,” she said.
