Interview with Cédric Brachet, Manager of DERICHEBOURG Aeronautics Services Germany

At the helm of the German subsidiary of DERICHEBOURG Aeronautics Services for more than 4 years now, Cédric Brachet looks back on his career and on the everyday activities of his teams

Tell us about your career in DERICHEBOURG?
I began my career with Derichebourg as an operations manager in 2012. I have been living in Germany and in Hamburg for 19 years now. But it is with DERICHEBOURG that I have really been able to progress, thanks to its skills development policy. I climbed the ladder rung by rung and gradually gained more responsibility. Thus, I went from Unit Leader, to Operations Manager, Senior Operations Manager, then Managing Director in 2018 and finally, in early 2020, Manager of all the aeronautical activity in Germany.

What are your teams' objectives in this territory?
Nowadays, with our teams, we mainly work as subcontractors. We become involved in the industrialisation phase of an aircraft, that is to say, in the areas of preparation and production. To this is added quality inspection and quality assurance. And we have just added industrial design and production engineering to our catalogue, thus boosting our skills in cabin installation thanks to having acquired Ylipson GmbH (now Ylipson by DERICHEBOURG GmbH).

What are your customers' expectations?
The primary issue for our customers is skilled resources. In a competitive market, but one which has been impacted by COVID-19, the importance of talent and ultimately skills is paramount. We want to rely on our many years as expert specialists in order to assist local actors by bringing them solutions very rapidly, together with a suitable workforce. Service alone is not sufficient and this is why we devote a great deal of resources to recruiting, training and supporting the women and men, who will then work to a standard satisfying our customers' expectations.

Finally, could you tell us how DERICHEBOURG Aeronautics Services has become a player involved in the German arena?
The acquisition of Ylipson made possible an increase in staffing to more than 210 employees at the Hamburg and Bremen sites. Our presence is linked to that of our customer and together we have been able to integrate into the territory and develop our activities. Finally, and still with recruitment in mind, we support each talented individual, who joins us, in order to facilitate his or her integration into DERICHEBOURG, as well as into the region. We are not only a French company; we are now well established and integrated locally. We have established a large network in situ of local actors, which allows us to make our activities more dynamic and to gain in proximity.