Building for Airbus: HPM Hosts Town Hall Sessions to Encourage Local Vendor Partnerships in Mobile, AL
In May, Airbus confirmed its plans to raise a third aircraft assembly line in Mobile, Alabama – a tremendous investment that will eventually create more than 1,000 new jobs. The project is expected to break ground in early 2023, but the procurement process is already well underway.
As the program manager for Airbus, HPM was pleased to partner with the client, as well as the Mobile Chamber, the Mobile Area Black Chamber of Commerce, the city of Mobile, Mobile County, the Mobile Section of the Associated General Contractors of America and the Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance, to host three recent town hall meetings to increase awareness of vendor opportunities among local contractors and other interested parties.
“The mission tonight is simple,” said Jay Daily, VP of business development for HPM, at one of the recent sessions. “We want to ensure awareness of upcoming work. We also want to engage all community partners. We are trying to maximize local participation, as we have in the past.”
Town hall sessions, held in June, were designed for business leaders hoping to earn a piece of the expansive work. The goal is to pair up contractors large and small to work in teams on the projects, and ultimately drive economic impact deeper into the community by ensuring more dollars are spent locally to serve the Mobile economy.
Tapping as many local businesses as possible is a central goal for Airbus, and HPM was at the helm of this initiative, ensuring participants understood the “design-build” approach and were prepared to bring local relationships to the table. Procurement activity for each Airbus package, which ranges from work on a utility corridor to the delivery of new aircraft hangars, will take place in late summer and throughout the fall. Contractors at all levels were encouraged to complete a registration process, which provided an opportunity for firms to detail their capabilities and the kind of work they are interested in.
HPM’s long-standing partnership with Airbus makes it the ideal program management partner for the forthcoming Brookley Aeroplex expansion project. The relationship began nearly fifteen years ago with HPM’s successful involvement in the construction of Airbus Engineering Center, which led to the firm managing the A320 Final Assembly Line (FAL) project and the A220 FAL facility construction. This recent town hall initiative mirrors HPM’s own commitment to local relationship building and investment in the Mobile market.
As Mobile continues to grow and Alabama’s aerospace sector strengthens, HPM looks forward to serving as a trusted partner to Airbus as it works to maximize local business involvement, bolster Mobile’s economy and deliver new and exciting employment opportunities to the local community.
