French seating specialist Expliseat has unveiled a major brand redesign at AIX, a marketing revamp which executives say underlines its transition from a start-up challenger to a full industrial player in the market.
Since its launch 14 years ago, Expliseat has made a mark in the interiors business with its lightweight titanium and carbonfibre TiSeat economy seats. That includes its latest TiSeat 2X Lite, weighing just 6kg, which is on display for the first time at the show in Hamburg. Expliseat has already secured an undisclosed Airbus low-cost operator as launch customer, details of which will be announced in the coming months.
While the lightweight virtues of its design meant much of its initial success was based around regional aircraft, Expliseat has more recently made further in-roads into the narrowbody segment as well as securing significant airline contract wins. Over the past 12 months that includes business with Air France, Air Canada regional unit Jazz Aviation and European charter operator Jettime.
At the same time, Expliseat has also stepped up its production capabilities with the opening of a new final assembly line in Angers last September, which is capable of producing 32,000 seats annually. It is also embarking on a fresh sales and marketing push in North America and is looking at diversification opportunities – having outlined a seat concept for the rail sector at the last InnoTrans event.
“Our business has transformed dramatically and our products have evolved significantly over the past few years, reaching design maturity and now exceeding aesthetics standards,” said Expliseat chief executive and co-founder Amuary Barberot. “Our customers and OEM partners endorsed that. We wanted our identity to evolve at the same pace.”
Expliseat vice-president of strategy, marketing and communications, Antonio Ficca, adds: “Expliseat grew from a research and development project of four young French engineers into a factory of 120 people today with 20 customers worldwide developing, certifying and delivering seats to all aircraft OEMs.”
At AIX last year Expliseat unveiled its first contract win at Air France. The French carrier is launch customer for the company’s TiSeat 2X seat and will begin retrofitting it across its regional fleet of 23 Embraer 190s from this summer.
Danish carrier Jettime meanwhile is equipping Expliseat’s product on its Boeing 737s. This further builds Expliseat’s narrowbody aircraft business, which was boosted last year with a breakthrough order with Kuwaiti low-cost carrier Jazeera Airways taking the seat for its A320s.
Air Canada’s commitment for the TiSeat 2 on its De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 turboprops operated by Jazz adds significant business in North America, where Expliseat already counts Canadian carriers Porter Airlines and Nolinor among its customers and has high ambitions for further growth. Alongside the setting up of a commercial hub in Montreal, it also has plan a maintenance network with North American-based partners.
“The North American regional aviation market is one of the largest in the world, yet it has historically been underserved when it comes to true seating innovation,” says JF Tessier, Expliseat’s vice-president sales for North America.
Ficca says the company expects to grow to 150 staff by the end of summer and the new branding will support its growth.
“The company that started as a research and development start-up is now a fully-developed SME and growing,” he says. “So we had to somehow move away from the image we had and we had to start to display ourselves as the company that we have become.”
