Chino to Kerrville

[MooneyMitch]

"PostOSH: Mooney Consolidates In Kerrville

By Paul Bertorelli

Mooney’s Chino, California-based design center, which did much of the work on the emerging M10 line, will move its operations to the Kerrville, Texas, factory headquarters. “We’re going to be consolidating efforts,” says Mooney’s Lance Phillips. The Chino facility was responsible for the design and development work on the M10 models, a product line that Mooney appears to be rethinking. Last spring at Sun ‘n Fun, Mooney’s then-CEO Vivek Saxena told AVweb that the company didn’t think the market would support a new, clean-sheet trainer and that the company was rethinking the model to be the next-generation piston aircraft. Whether that’s to be a trainer or not, Mooney didn’t say. However, Phillips said the company’s primary investors are still committed to the aircraft and that more information would be forthcoming in a few months. But consolidating what is essentially a skunk works with production in Kerrville will speed things along. “Getting those two right next to each other and working together is going to be a real benefit. Sharing those resources and that knowledge with the M20 team is going to be invaluable,” Phillips says. Meanwhile, Mooney continues its search of a new CEO. Saxena left last April, just after Sun ‘n Fun, having served less than a year in the job. He replaced Jerry Chen, who had been hired by Soaring America Corp., the Chinese-backed investment group that bought and recapitalized Moony. You can hear the complete podcast with Phillips here."

[peevee]

I thought the m10 line got the axe?

[gsengle]

Unclear at this point, they axed the guy right after that decision...


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[Bob_Belville]

10 minutes ago, gsengle said:

Unclear at this point, they axed the guy right after that decision...


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Saxena made the M10 axed comment at a press conference at SnF. It apparently had not been vetted (who knows if it was "true"). Along with his imperious style, e.g. "no factory tours" which attempted to turn the Kerrville "family" culture upside down, it took about 10 minutes to show him the door after that last straw event.

Lance Phillips, Marketing Manager, certainly said all the right things last Monday at the Mooney seminar at AirVenture. I'm stoked.   

[tony]

Typical knee jerk reaction from an aerospace company.  There was a lot of aerospace talent in southern California.  If the talent doesn't follow the move, then where's the benefit?  I hope the engineers are offered a move package and I hope some of them take it.  The talent certainly wasn't in Kerrville anymore.  

[mooneygirl]

This is old news.  Presently Mooney is consolidating it's staff in Kerrville. No firm date set on the move.  The M10 is in flux but not scrapped.  I did notice that Threshold [I believe that is the FBO in CNO where Mooney is sub-letting] might be considering legal action for the lease termination.  Most important for this Mooney Girl is that our factory in Kerrville is sound and folks are working making the Ultra models.

Mooney had a good showing at OSH, the booth was hopping.

[Bob_Belville]

3 minutes ago, mooneygirl said:

This is old news.  Presently Mooney is consolidating it's staff in Kerrville. No firm date set on the move.  The M10 is in flux but not scrapped.  I did notice that Threshold [I believe that is the FBO in CNO where Mooney is sub-letting] might be considering legal action for the lease termination.  Most important for this Mooney Girl is that our factory in Kerrville is sound and folks are working making the Ultra models.

Mooney had a good showing at OSH, the booth was hopping.

Jolie, how many folks from the factory were there? Seems to me that it was at least doubled from last year.

[gsengle]

Saxena made the M10 axed comment at a press conference at SnF. It apparently had not been vetted (who knows if it was "true"). Along with his imperious style, e.g. "no factory tours" which attempted to turn the Kerrville "family" culture upside down, it took about 10 minutes to show him the door after that last straw event.
Lance Phillips, Marketing Manager, certainly said all the right things last Monday at the Mooney seminar at AirVenture. I'm stoked.   

So tell us some of all the right things that were said! Any word on sales?


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[Bob_Belville]

There was a little ceremony presenting the keys to a new Acclaim Ultra to the owners. Lance described their current policy to build planes to order allowing options, in particular paint schemes. Someone may correct me, but I recall him saying they are staffed to get to a pace of one plane every 10 days as sales dictate. A new order today, subject to change, will be 3-4 months lead time.  He did not provide details on how many planes are sold. 

• Lance talked about the factory's commitment to support of the entire fleet. Any part that was manufactured by Mooney should be available though not on the shelf. 3rd party components might be more difficult as the original part may not be available. Mooney will work to approve a substitute part, perhaps a part that is on more current models. Last month's parts sales was $300,000 which he described as a significant increase. 
• He made it clear that Mooney had returned to their historic "family" culture and that visits to the factory are welcome.
• He talked about the investors' continuing commitment to Mooney in general and Kerrville in particular. They have invested more millions recently on plant and equipment. I think a state of the art composite manufacture and paint shop is involved though I might be mis-remembering whether that's to be all in house. While the M10 designation seems to be avoided, the commitment to a clean sheet plane based on what has been learned in the Chino effort. ISTM they're still studying the target market. 
• At under $800,000 for the Acclaim Ultra (~$769k) and under $700,000 for the Ovation Ultra, Mooney is very competitive in their market niche. With investment tax credits, accelerated depreciation, and other financial considerations, anyone who can buy in a corporate structure should strongly consider new vs. used. Mooney is once again emphasizing their dealer network and these guys will no doubt talk as much about taxes and financing as performance.

@mooneygirl , @donkaye, or someone else who was there may remember other details or correct my info. I did not take notes.