Pryer Aerospace

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RACE

With almost 70 years’ experience, Pryer Aerospace is a highly skilled producer and manufacturer of aerospace structural components and assemblies. With headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the company maintains a positive relationship with the commu nity and utilises its resources to help those in need. CEO of Pryer Aerospace, Jeff Landreth, and Manager of ESG and Training, Cayla Brumble discussed the company’s success and sustainability processes with Imogen Ward.

Pryer Aerospace was founded in 1965 by W. E. Pryer. Originally spe cialising in metal forming, the com pany has since broadened it’s reach in the aerospace industry. With 130 employees and an impressive span of 180,000 square feet in facilities, the company has fully utilised its forming, machining, and assembly capabilities and assets to lead the way in aerospace production. Whilst continuing to incorporate the values set by Mr Pryer and maintaining the company’s roots in innovation, Pryer Aerospace has worked hard to diversify to meet customer demand.

Innovative investment

Upholding a ‘warrior mentality’, Pryer Aerospace continuously strives to be the best in the market. Since 2015, the

company has added a lot of new capa bilities to ensure its competitiveness within the market. “This investment in new technology and capabilities,” Jeff Landreth, CEO of Pryer Aerospace said, “has resulted in a projection of double the sales in the last 12 months.”

Exemplifying variety and specialism, the company implemented hot forming to retain its lead in the market. Being one of the select few companies that is certi fied for the service, Pryer Aerospace has been successfully executing this process since 2017.

In the past three years, the company has also branched out into the space market. This diversification has enabled Pryer to stay ahead of the game: the company’s extensive facilities have enabled it to expand into the production of large,

PRYER AEROSPACE I PROFILE

high-speed monolithic machining and very large structural assemblies.

“Some of the assemblies are 23ft in diam eter which is larger than the cross section of a 747 fuselage,” Mr Landreth said. “Pryer Aerospace’s ability to make all the detail parts that feed the assemblies has given it a distinct market advantage in terms of time to market. In the space segment, lead time is extremely important due to the very competitive nature of the industry.”

The company also controls the majority of the value chain, making all detail parts for its assemblies, which allows for inde pendence from many outside suppliers. This business model has advantaged Pryer, ensuring that customer support is streamlined without any external disrup tive factors.

Soaring sustainability Sustainability is of utmost importance to Pryer Aerospace. As members and sponsors of The Tulsa Sustainable Alliance, the com pany continually brainstorms new pro

cesses, bettering its environmental impact and encouraging practical improvements to its facilities. Following the company’s progress with hot forming, Pryer Aerospace is also planning to increase its sustainability through the repurposing of this processes generated heat. The company intends to use this wasted energy to heat the 20,000 square foot building that houses the pro ject, effectively halving its gas usage within this department.

Envisioning the reduction of waste, Pryer Aerospace is currently looking to imple ment an employee recycling programme. Heading this project is the company’s Manager of ESG and Training, Cayla Brumble.

“We all have Amazon delivery boxes coming to our houses daily,” Ms Brumble said, “a lot of our employees are just tossing these. So, we wanted to start up a programme where they can bring their cardboard boxes to both of our facilities, allowing us to recycle these for them along with our cardboard and paper recycling.”

With the environment in mind, the com pany has already invested in several steps to improve its sustainability.

“Pryer Aerospace recycles 100% of its raw materials drop,” Mr Landreth said, “which consists of aluminium, titanium, nickel-based steels, and carbon steels. We recycle all our paper and plastic by-products, oils, machine coolants, and batteries.”

Continually conscious of its environmental impact, Pryer Aerospace has also installed new high efficiency air conditioners and LED lighting throughout both of its facili ties. This ensures a reduction in energy usage, without having to compromise on the comfort of its team members.

Pryer’s philanthropy

With the rise in the cost of living, Pryer Aerospace has worked vigorously to support the local community. The com

pany has partnered with a nearby ele mentary school to provide children with essential resources. Delivering food, edu cational resources and even clothing, Pryer Aerospace wants to ensure that the children of Tulsa get the very best start in life.

Incorporating its work with the community into its sustainable ethos, Pryer is deter mined to eradicate unnecessary waste, Mr Landreth commented: “Our employees are even recycling their children’s clothes through our donation to the local ele mentary school.”

This generous feat by both Pryer and its employees further highlights the benignancy of the company, and its strong morals.

At Thanksgiving, Pryer Aerospace hosts a turkey drive, purchasing one for every employee, as well as 200 extra that are sent to the company’s local homeless shelter, Mission. This generous act

ensures a hot meal for those who normally go without.

Furthering this holiday spirit, the company also holds a Christmas food drive compe tition with its employees. This has been a huge success in the past, with one year boasting the collection of 6,000 cans for the local Mission.

Training triumphs

Pryer Aerospace is fully committed to it’s employees and invests $250,000 annu ally in a training programme. A dedicated training facility and state-of-the-art E-Lab allows fully flexible training, which the company has committed to injecting a generous amount of time and money

into since the start of the programme three years ago.

The training programme also fully enhances the employees’ skill sets: “Pryer Aerospac e is very focused in the cross-training of all employees,” Mr Landreth said. “If some body is out sick, we always have someone who is cross trained to temporarily step in. Also, our employees benefit from the training pro gramme as it builds their skills and opens other career opportunities to them. It really is a win-win situation for everybody involved.”

Looking to the future, Pryer Aerospace plans to continue providing excellence in service, training, and customer relations. The company hopes to stay ahead of

competition by coming up with innovative ways to enhance sustainability and con tinuing to expand its product capabilities.

“We will continue to expand our capacities in the areas that will benefit our customers, and we’ll continue to find ways to expand our sustainability programme.” Mr Landreth concluded: “we’re always looking for ways to serve our community and pro vide a helping hand for those around who need it.” n