Remember when in the thick of the supply chain crisis you couldn’t get a common oil filter for months? Or when overnight the price of a plain vanilla starter or alternator almost doubled in price? I sure do and while the supply of consumables and replacement components has loosened, their prices keep increasing. And so when I saw that some of the most respected brands in the aviation aftermarket—Tempest, McFarlane, Precision Airmotive and Alcor to name a few—were bought up by Victor Sierra Aviation Holdings, I jumped at the chance for a sit-down with its CEO, Scott Still, at the recent National Business Aviation Association’s convention in Las Vegas.
Frankly, while we’ve reported favorably on products from McFarlane, Tempest and others over the years that are now under the Victor Sierra umbrella, I wondered if this messes with a good thing. Moreover, where is the end to the spike in production costs? I should know there isn’t. “Everyone understands what’s going on with pricing and you can’t hold it all back,” Still told me. However, he’s convinced that providing high-quality PMA’d replacement parts for 30 percent less than an OEM is a good start. Still isn’t focused on making big bucks on a single purchase, but instead on repeat business. That should be easy, with filters from Tempest and landing gear and wheel strut components from McFarlane coming to mind. The Victor Sierra brands serve something like 42,000 customers (85 percent of Victor Sierra’s business is the aftermarket and the rest is supplying to OEMs) and Still says it’s important for these buyers to recognize the value in the products. I agree we should appreciate the worthy options over OEM standards. Dave McFarlane and Tim Henderson (at Tempest) earned huge market respect by designing lower-cost replacement parts for airplanes long out of production—85-plus years in some cases. Victor Sierra is fortunate to have the tech and machining needed to keep pumping these parts out. But the work is far from over and the elephant in the room is the huge investment that’s needed to pay for more R&D to fuel a growing demand for more replacement parts. Small companies just don’t have the means to do it.
Consumables aside, as the fleet of GA planes continues to age I think Victor Sierra and the resources behind it has a big opportunity to supply more OEM replacement parts to serve a booming refurbishment market. This means making a sizable investment in obtaining PMA and STC approvals—an easy way to quickly burn through a lot of capital. It’s not getting easier. Like most every company I’ve spoken with about FAA certification, Still recognizes the challenges. “One of the biggest challenges is getting FAA approval and because more companies are submitting new PMA requests, it’s taking longer for the FAA to approve them,” he told me. The good news is the supply chain challenges seem to be over, at least for now, according to Still.
If you’re loyal to some of Victor Sierra’s popular companies, you probably won’t see many changes in the branding. “As we add companies we’ll always maintain the founder’s names in the branding because that’s what the customer feels good about,” Still said. I don’t think Victor Sierra has any intention of sitting out future purchases. It’s actively looking for more brands to add under the umbrella, though it’s selective about what it will take on. One required trait is the company’s ability to service the customer and to me that’s just as important as the performance of the product. When we evaluate products here at the magazine we look hard at the support that’s behind them and after many years of interacting with companies small and large (and through our product satisfaction pollings), the ones who get it right are easy to spot and easier for us to recommend. I hope Victor Sierra can make its long-respected brands better with more approved products and after talking with Scott Still, I’m convinced that he knows what it takes to satisfy a very demanding market that’s intolerant of poor quality and subpar customer service.
