Defence firm Leonardo has agreed a deal to continue outsourcing some engineering work from its helicopter manufacturing site in Somerset to consultancy Morson Projects.
The agreement will see Morson sub-contract work from Leonardo's Yeovil base through subcontractors and its UK design offices in Belfast, Manchester, and Hull. The two firms, which have collaborated for more than 20 years, said the move would extended their partnership into a third decade.
Adam Clarke, managing director of Leonardo Helicopters UK, commented: “This strategic partnering agreement enables Leonardo and Morson Projects to not only strengthen relations between the two companies, but it also secures engineering work and supply chain resilience across the UK.
"Furthermore, if we are successful on large contracts like the 'UK MOD New Medium Helicopter' programme, we will have a number of skills available to us to support UK prosperity and our engineering ecosystem.”
Gareth Beck, operations director at Morson Projects, added: “The 'Prime Supplier Status' award is the culmination of many successful years of Leonardo and Morson Projects working collaboratively and is testament to the hard work, passion, and commitment of everyone involved. Morson Projects is delighted that we can continue to work with Leonardo’s industry leading products and be at the forefront of capability enhancement.”
Italian multinational Leonardo - one of the biggest suppliers to the UK Ministry of Defence - employs more than 8,000 people in the UK, and recently opened a new site in Newcastle.
It's Yeovil facility is the only place in Britain that still carries out the end-to-end design, development and manufacturing of helicopters. More than 3,100 staff are based on the site, including contractors and 150 trainee graduates and apprentices, who work across departments including planning, engineering, research and innovation, air traffic control, aviation operations, electrical manufacturing and flight safety.
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