Spanish Aerospace Engineering Firm MTorres Downsizes in Everett
Jan. 12—High-tech Spanish aerospace engineering company MTorres is downsizing and has sold its North American headquarters and manufacturing facility in Everett.
It will move the headquarters to leased offices in Lynnwood and lease a new production facility in Everett about half the size of the vacated space, MTorres Group CEO Juan Albeniz said.
MTorres has cut jobs in Everett steadily since 2017 — from about 120 employees then to just 38 at the end of 2021, according to data the company filed with the state. But Albeniz said no employees will be laid off due to the sale.
The move is a blow to the region's high-end aerospace manufacturing sector, reflecting the downturn in commercial aerospace work and the intense pressure on suppliers since the pandemic.
Another factor is the pause in Boeing's 777X program — for which MTorres provides automated assembly equipment — and the decision by Boeing leadership to push out the launch of an all-new airplane.
MTorres designs and builds advanced, automated manufacturing equipment for the aerospace world, demand for which depends on new airplane-development projects.
"All the manufacturers have had a downturn. Boeing is one of them. And it has reflected on us," said Albeniz said in a phone interview Thursday from MTorres Group headquarters in Pamplona, Spain. "Suppliers like us need to adapt constantly to the situation."
Ambitions set back
MTorres bought local engineering firm Pacifica in 2012 to establish a presence here, then in 2015 launched ambitious growth plans tied to the 777X program and the lucrative prospect of later winning work on Boeing's next all-new jet.
Having won three contracts for equipment to fabricate and assemble parts of the 777X's carbon composite wings, MTorres invested about $17 million in its custom-built 70,000-square-foot facility that opened in 2017 close to Boeing's Everett jet plant.
That ambition has been seriously set back.
After the pandemic staggered the airline business, Boeing delayed the 777X by three years and paused production. And in November CEO Dave Calhoun said Boeing won't launch another all-new airplane until late this decade.
Everett is one of three MTorres design and production facilities, with the other two in Spain. It also has commercial and technical support centers across the globe. But with the major contraction in business, it has shrunk from about 700 employees worldwide in 2015 to about 400 today.
John Monroe, a former Boeing executive on the board of the state's Aerospace Futures Alliance industry trade group, said that "with nothing new going on" in terms of airplane programs, it's particularly tough for companies like MTorres.
"If not building new tools for new airplanes, what work will you do?" Monroe said.
This month, MTorres sold the Everett building for $21 million to packaging company Formost Fuji, a sale first reported by the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce.
The pandemic downturn at Airbus, like the squeeze at Boeing, has had a similarly negative impact on MTorres.
MTorres had large contracts for tooling on the Airbus A350 widebody jet program. But with long-haul international travel still depressed, "The investment level of Airbus in that particular model is now less than it used to be," Albeniz said.
He said that with global air traffic gradually returning to pre-pandemic levels, the commercial aviation industry has probably hit bottom and will begin to grow again.
"Of course, there's a lot of uncertainty about what speed that will actually happen," Albeniz added. "It will definitely take years for the kind of automated equipment that we make to be at the level of demand we were at a few years ago."
Military and space opportunities
Still, MTorres is actively pursuing new work.
Albeniz said MTorres has bid on pending contracts in Mobile, Alabama, where Airbus is building a new assembly line for its bestselling A321 jet.
It also is partnering with Airbus on a futuristic research and development project to develop an innovative carbon composite wing manufacturing system.
Using a process first discussed at the 2017 Paris Air Show, the intent is to fabricate all the parts of an airplane wing — skin, stringers, spars and stiffeners — in a one-shot part with no fasteners, and harden them by a process of resin infusion that doesn't require an expensive high-pressure oven, known as an autoclave.
And while pursuing that technology for the future, MTorres is also bidding for more defense and space work, winning five large contracts in those sectors in the past year.
One of those is for a military project with Northrop Grumman, with some of that work done in Everett and some in Spain. Though Albeniz declined to disclose which program that is, it's known MTorres bid for contracts on Northrop's B-21 Long Range Strike Bomber.
MTorres also has bid for work with local space rocket company Blue Origin.
Rival engineering company Electroimpact of Mukilteo has already had success with the space sector. It is currently installing in Florida some of its automated equipment for assembly of the New Glenn rocket that Blue Origin is developing there.
Albeniz said it "made financial sense" to vacate and sell off the Everett facility given the current volume of work.
He said leasing will provide flexibility to adjust as demand changes. When work picks up again, MTorres will lease more space as needed.
The main constraints on any future expansion will be hiring people and gearing up the supply chain, not finding more space, he added.
Albeniz insisted MTorres will be ready when growth returns.
It is still providing support on its existing 777X contracts and the company is holding fast to its ambition to win more work from Boeing when the planemaker emerges from its current crisis.
"We have a commitment to Boeing to be able to grow with them again when they need us," he said.
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