Taking advantage of the strong global brand name recognition of its commercial aircraft division, the European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. (EADS) yesterday said it is renaming itself Airbus Group.
EADS currently has five key brand names. Those include Airbus and Eurocopter, which an analysis showed have strong public awareness, and Astrium, Cassidian and EADS, which do not. Airbus currently accounts for about two-thirds of the company’s overall sales.
The European-based company said that “Airbus’ brand value has increased dramatically over the last few years” while “EADS is relatively unknown outside of Europe, which does not support the Group’s increasing international ambitions.” EADS said that using the Airbus name will give it the international corporate identity it seeks.
Airbus is best known for competing with American aerospace and defense giant Boeing [BA] for large passenger and cargo plane orders throughout the world, including in the United States, where a number of airlines operate the European plane maker’s aircraft. Airbus also makes military transport planes, as does Boeing.
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| Airbus A330 MRTT Aerial Refueling Tanker. Photo by Airbus |
As Airbus Group, the company will continue to be led by Tom Enders as CEO, with the Airbus commercial aircraft division led by Fabrice Bregier, Airbus Defence & Space led by Bernhard Gerwert, and Airbus Helicopters led by Guillaume Faury.
Airbus Defence and Space will integrate Airbus Military, Astrium and Cassidian. The new division will have about $18.7 billion in annual sales on consist of about 45,000 employees.
Airbus Helicopters, essentially the Eurocopter division, will include all commercial and military helicopter activities.
Within Airbus Defence & Security, the Space Systems business sector will be led by Francois Auque, Military Aircraft by Domingo Urena-Raso, Communication, Intelligence and Security by Evert Dudok, and Equipment by Thomas Muller.
Implementation of the new grouping will begin on Jan. 1, 2014 and be completed in the second half of 2014.
“What we are unveiling today is an evolution, not a revolution,” Enders said in a statement. “It’s the next logical step in the development of our company. We affirm the predominance of commercial aeronautics in our group and we restructure and focus our defense and space activities to take costs out, increase profitability and improve our market position.”
A spokesman for EADS’ U.S.-based division, EADS North America, said a “deliberative implementation” in the coming months of the new corporate structure will include how the name change is applied to the U.S. businesses.
In conjunction with its new strategic profile, EADS yesterday released its first half financial results for 2013, with sales increasing 6 percent to $35 billion and net income up 31 percent to just over $1 billion.
Orders more than tripled to $128.8 billion, driven by commercial aircraft, while defense and space-related intake was lower.
EADS said that sales were up on deliveries of commercial jets while defense sales were level at $6.7 billion. Net income was impacted by a $181.2 million in one-time charges at Airbus, most of which was related to the pre-delivery payment dollar mismatch and balance sheet reevaluation.
EADS maintained its guidance for 2013.