Kaman and Kineco Sign Agreement to Form a Joint Venture in India

Kaman Aerospace Group, a subsidiary of Kaman Corporation

, and Kineco Private Limited today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement to form a manufacturing joint venture (JV) in India. The new company will be named Kineco Kaman Composites – India Pvt. Ltd. The venture is based in Goa and will manufacture advanced composite structures for aerospace, imaging/medical and other industries. Gregory L. Steiner, President of Kaman Aerospace Group, commented, “This venture comes together with the strength of a mutually shared vision that will drive and focus the JV to provide outstanding composite structures manufacturing solutions for our customers around the world. This strategic step is in keeping with our vision to provide our customers with a complete aerosystem solution. Our customers will benefit with a Kaman “One Stop” full complement of seamless services including design, tooling, testing, certification, low rate initial production, through steady state high velocity production. In addition, mature processes with high labor content will serve as key potential opportunities to provide our customers with future step down pricing.” Shekhar Sardessai, Chairman and Managing Director of Kineco Private Limited commented, “The partnership between Kineco and Kaman is a unique and special one. This JV formation has the potential to become an extraordinary event for Indian business and the global aerospace industry. This relationship will foster and develop opportunities for both companies from uncharted territories.” The joint venture will conduct its operations out of the existing Kineco composites manufacturing facility in Goa, and is expected to initially employ approximately 50 experienced composite manufacturing employees, who are already producing complex composite structures utilizing the latest carbon material and autoclave curing technology. The business will be further enhanced by Kaman's proven manufacturing know-how and decades of aerospace composites fabrication experience.