Made to Order

Peterborough official website boasts that the city air is clean and communities are safe. It billed as a good place to raise a family. And, for one local family in particular, it a good place to grow a very successful aircraft completions business.

With roots going back to 1975, Flying Colours Corp. is the largest operator at CYPQ and a successful global aviation service company. The family-owned business occupies 200,000 square feet of space at the municipal airport, sprawling out to encompass four hangars and several offices. Peterborough is home to the company head office and Canadian branch, with a total of 180 employees on site. Another 130 staff members were added to the roster when Flying Colours acquired JetCorp Technical Services in Chesterfield, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis, in 2009. 

Back in 1975, there were only 12 employees on the payroll when pilot and businessman John Gillespie launched Trent Air, a flight school that soon branched out into aircraft sales and leasing and, towards the end of the decade, into Beechcraft 99 engine upgrades and super spar conversions, which extended the life of that aircraft. Maintenance work was done under the Rapid Aircraft Repair Inc. banner. 

the time there was an upsurge in small package delivery so the Beech 99 became a good aircraft to fill that role it could carry its own weight after the conversion work, Gillespie explained in an interview with Canadian Skies. We did about 125 conversions over a period of 20 years; in fact, we still do them today. The business grew, and we got into paint and interior work in the late 1980s. We wanted to be able to paint our own sales aircraft, and do some minor interior work.

Gillespie purchased a small paint shop named Flying Colours from its owners in 1986. The shop was located at Kingston Norman Rogers Airport (CYGK), and it continued to operate there until Gillespie moved it to Peterborough in 1989.

Long-time employee Tony Barrett, Flying Colours’ current VP of modifications and completions, started with the company back in 1982. He recalls the organization shift away from flight training late in that decade, and its move toward global aircraft leasing. As the 1990s rolled in, the world faced a shaky economy and leasing revenue dried up. Heavy maintenance carried us through the 1990s, remembered Barrett. Paint was a big part of that, because we were a one-stop shop for maintenance and paint. It costly to move an aircraft from a maintenance shop to another location for paint, and we could offer it all.

The company continued to grow despite an uncertain economy. Gradually, the aircraft in the hangar morphed from small piston craft to turboprops and then jets, with an increasing focus on interior refurbishments. By this point, all work was being done under the Flying Colours banner although Rapid Aircraft Repair still exists today.

Today, our primary business is custom interior work, maintenance, and refinishing the exterior of an aircraft, said Gillespie. For the past three years, Flying Colours has been the sole contractor performing green completions on the Bombardier Challenger 850 business jet. The company got the contract based on its previous experience converting numerous Canadair CRJ-200s, most of them previous airliners, into luxury 850 look-alike business jets. [The Challenger 850 is derived from the CRJ-200 platform.]

Roughly 60 per cent of Flying Colours’ current business portfolio is represented by green aircraft completions and conversion projects for owners, with the remaining 40 per cent coming from the refurbishment of used business jets, maintenance, as well as exterior paint work on a wide variety of aircraft. 

Flying Colours has completed 10 new Challenger 850s to date, with another five scheduled to come in over the next year. Each 850 completion is an eight-to-10 month project, depending on the specifications chosen by the owner. It takes roughly the same amount of time to convert a used CRJ-200 airliner into a custom-made private luxury liner. Flying Colours orders raw components like seat frames, but staff engineer and manufacture all finishings on site. Expert craftspeople work in various departments, including woodworking, upholstery, interior design, electrical and avionics, and exterior paint. Components are meticulously finished by hand, using quality materials that have been pre-selected by the customer.

Occasionally, conversion projects take longer if the customer has special requirements. The staff at Flying Colours prides itself on being flexible enough to accommodate all reasonable requests. For example, said Gillespie, we have a customer who was going to buy a brand new aircraft, but he wanted a bed and shower in it, and the manufacturer said no. So he came to us, and we got a CRJ-200 for him and now we’re converting it. But a bigger company hasn’t got that flexibility. It something we’re going to try to maintain.

The demand for CRJ-200 conversions is good right now. For a much smaller investment (compared to a Challenger 850) a used CRJ-200 can be purchased and completely customized to a client needs. The hours on the airframe are the only main concern; but, if it passes the necessary maintenance inspections, it becomes a simple matter of a cosmetic conversion. 

Flying Colours’ Peterborough location can handle about eight green completions or CRJ-200 conversions per year, on top of assorted refurbishments, paint and maintenance projects. JetCorp is more heavy maintenance-focused, but is still equipped to finish four big completions or conversions per year. 

Of the 10 Challenger 850s completed by Flying Colours so far, four have been Chinese-registered aircraft. We can’t get them done fast enough to go to China, Barrett said. 

The company sees a lucrative new market opening up in Asia, and establishing a base there has become a priority.

We’re definitely going to be there [in Asia]. Mark my words, emphasized Gillespie. It so important to us for the long term, I believe. The presence there of a company of our nature of which there are none in the Southeast Asian market well, it wide open. There are no competitors there, because there never been a big market there for business jets.

But that market is now opening up. According to Bombardier Business Aircraft market forecast for 2011-2030: 

All summed up, we expect that the cultural acceptance of business aviation, the rapid growth of high net worth individuals, the plans for new airports, and the recent improvements to flight planning regulation and airspace liberalization will allow private aviation to blossom in China over the next 20 years.

Other emerging markets highlighted in the Bombardier report include India, Latin America, Russia, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific region.

Gillespie is excited about the potential represented by these markets. He said Flying Colours will partner with an Asian firm to develop its new base, and has considered locations in mainland China and the Philippines. A location had not been chosen at the time of writing, but Gillespie said Flying Colours will certainly have something established there by 2013.

Canadian entrepreneurs will be interested to learn that John Gillespie loses no sleep when it comes to succession planning. Amazingly, all four of his children have followed him into the business with enthusiasm. Identical twins Eric and Sean focus on completion sales and project management, liaising directly with customers and shepherding aircraft owners through the completions process. Daughter Kate manages the design department, which helps customers choose the fit and finishes for the inside of their aircraft everything from fine silk carpeting to custom fabrics and leathers is on offer. Gillespie youngest daughter, Lisa, works part-time in the accounting department.

They’re all very passionate about aviation, said the senior Gillespie with pride. They got a few of my genes, I guess. All the right ingredients are in the mix they are very customer-driven and customer-oriented. I never pushed them into it, but over the years they’ve all come to me and wanted to join in as they’ve seen the business growing. It been a very good transition.

It certainly seems like the younger Gillespies are products of their environment. I grew up around aviation so I certainly have a passion for it. It in our blood, said Eric. Sean and I spent summers working in the exterior shop cleaning airplanes. My father stressed if you’re going to work in the business, you have to know the business. We worked in the upholstery shop and did what we could. We helped out in woodworking, and worked in the purchasing department. That gave us an understanding of what the business was all about.

Sean agreed. It was never forced on us. I knew that if I wanted to be in the business, the opportunity was there. Once it started to grow, Eric and I just loved it.

With so many Gillespies in the mix, it no surprise that Flying Colours retains a family atmosphere, despite the fact that the company employs more than 300 people in two countries. John Gillespie said he not about to change a winning formula at this stage in the game. The family atmosphere has worked well for us, he said. A lot of my employees have been here since day one. I have 30-plus-year employees who have grown up with me and the business. You have to stay open-minded and adaptable to keep that kind of atmosphere.

Added Eric: Everyone empowers themselves. We are on the shop floor every day; we have great managers and they all know what required. We have daily update meetings and make sure communication is number one.

Flying Colours has a good employee retention rate, and takes pains to keep its best talent. Nevertheless, Sean estimated that over the next four to five years, the staff in Peterborough will double. We can’t keep up with our growth here. We’ve already outgrown our facilities and need more space, he said. 

So, where will all of these new employees come from? After all, Peterborough is a relatively small centre with a limited labour pool, and aircraft completions experts are hard to find. That why, in 2009, Flying Colours took proactive steps to grow its own talent. The aviation service company partnered with the local Sir Sandford Fleming College to develop a new course called Aircraft Interior Fundamentals. Students in the four-month program learn about the different facets of an aircraft completion. Senior departmental managers at Flying Colours help teach the course, in addition to an instructor from the college. 

They get some onsite training, although not on any of our actual projects, explained Sean. the end, we guarantee everyone an interview. Depending on how they’re adapting at the end, I’d say we probably hire about 75 per cent of them.

The graduates create a pool of workers who have a base knowledge of aircraft completions, and that helps when quick turnaround projects come in the door. We’re still actively recruiting people, Sean added. We hired about 30 people over the last four to five months. We’re trying to grow at a good pace, but sometimes that easier said than done.

Growth management aside, the Flying Colours leadership team plans to keep the company focused on what it does best: green completions, CRJ-200 conversions, and nurturing budding international relationships while continuing to serve loyal domestic customers. 

The plan is to build another 60,000 square foot facility in Peterborough that will facilitate paint and interior work on larger jets, including those from the Airbus and Boeing families. With CYPQ recent runway extension to 7,000 feet, it is now possible to venture into working on larger-body craft. Flying Colours has already received a few inquiries in that direction, but John Gillespie said the company is tiptoeing into that market, because there are a lot of players in it, and the economy is bad now.

He takes pride, though, in Flying Colours’ continued steady growth. We’ve transitioned from one type of aircraft to the next. Piston to small jets, and now we’re contemplating larger jets. You can’t plan for these things, but you have to take advantage of circumstances as they come along. And you have to focus on your strengths.

Over the years, Flying Colours has honed its strengths: top quality craftsmanship with an emphasis on customer care. Sean summed it up best: When a customer leaves here, he has to be absolutely happy. Word of mouth is critical; it what we pride ourselves on. People want to know what they’re getting, and that it done right.

Judging by its high percentage of repeat and referral customers, word about the world-class aircraft completions centre in Peterborough is definitely getting around.