A long-anticipated collaboration between Brazil’s Embraer and France’s ATR finally came to fruition in late June during the Paris Air Show, as the two regional aircraft builders teamed with Oracle and KPMG Consulting to create a new Internet-based customer-support network. Called AeroChain, the new e-business marketplace will consume an investment of $21 million, 10 percent of which ATR will contribute and 6 percent of which Oracle and KPMG have committed. Embraer will shoulder the remainder of the cost burden.
As part of the deal, Embraer will gain access to ATR’s Toulouse warehouse. As its customer base in Europe grows at a rate that rivals any of its other markets, Embraer needs more parts capacity on the continent. Rather than expanding its own warehouse at Paris Le Bourget Airport at considerable cost of resources and time, Embraer chose the seemingly more pragmatic alternative of using ATR’s extra 16,000 sq ft of space at Toulouse.
