Aviation engineering firm AerFin has been named the UK’s fastest growing exporter with overseas sales growing at an average annual rate of 664% over the last two years.
The company, based on Bedwas House Industrial Estate, in Bedwas has topped this year’s Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 league table.
It is just the latest accolade for the company, after it was named last year as the fastest growing firm in Wales and the sixth fastest growing in the UK.
The company specialises in providing airlines with used aircraft parts and engines.
International sales soared to £52.7 million last year out of a total of £60.8m.
AerFin’s Chief Executive Bob James, who founded the company in 2010, said: “It is great to see the hard work of our team continue to pay off.
“Our fantastic international sales growth is down to our innovative, skilled and dedicated workforce.
“We have gone from strength-to-strength since our 2010 launch. South Wales remains at the centre of the commercial jet engine business in the UK and we are going to do everything we can to keep it that way.”
In 2014 US investment group CarVal Investors took an 80% stake in the company.
Since then, AerFin has spent more than £65m buying aircraft, engines and spares worldwide, which it recycles and sells or leases, helping international sales soar.
It focuses on single-aisle Airbus and Boeing aircraft, and Embraer regional jets.
It recently acquired a fleet of 15 Embraer E170-LR aircraft from Saudi Arabian Airlines.
The engines are managed at AerFin’s base in Bedwas, and, if not serviceable, they are broken into components for sale as spares.
The CarVal deal also enabled the company to diversify into airframes in 2015 with its acquisition of a Gatwick airframe components specialist.
Last year the company was named on the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 list after it grew sales by 158% over the last three years.
It was also named the fastest growing company in Wales after it achieved growth of 1,044% between 2013 and 2015.