Three GKN Aerospace aerostructures operations, in Bristol and Cowes in the UK and Munich in Germany, were recognised in Airbus's SQIP (supply chain and quality improvement) awards, at a ceremony in Toulouse last month. 

The Filton site achieved 'Accredited Supplier' status for the second year running and has now been an award winner for four consecutive years whilst the Cowes site gained the 'Best Performing Supplier' award and the Munich site gained 'Best Improved Supplier'. All of these awards recognise the consistently high level of performance and commitment demonstrated throughout the year by the teams at these GKN Aerospace sites. 

John Pritchard, CEO, GKN Aerospace - Aerostructures Europe commented: “Working closely with Airbus, we have implemented the SQIP programme within the company and with all our suppliers. As a result we have all achieved - and continue to realise - real performance benefits. SQIP provides an effective structure within which we can work together to explore, identify and implement solutions and to refine the practices we use to benchmark our activities. We are proud to have the effort and commitment of our teams at these sites - and the excellent levels of performance they have achieved - recognised by Airbus with these SQIP awards."

GKN Aerospace is the most comprehensive Tier 1 supplier to the aerospace industry. Across its international operation the company has been an important supplier to Airbus for well over two decades, with sales to Airbus representing around a fifth of the total GBP2.5bn annual sales. GKN Aerospace supports almost all Airbus aircraft programmes with products ranging from advanced composite and metallic airframe and engine structures to high-performance cockpit and cabin transparencies.