Lockheed Martin and Logan Fabricom to form business alliance

OWEGO-Last year, Lockheed Martin Postal Systems, and in particular its Material Handling Solutions operating unit, began to pursue commercial contracts. For years, the company had had successful contracts with the U.S. Postal Service. And those contracts are currently increasing. But, as with many companies who have hitched their wagons to a federal star, Lockheed saw the wisdom of diversifying and seeking other markets.

As the first of its diversification ploys, Lockheed Martin recently signed a memorandum of agreement to form a strategic business alliance with Logan Fabricom Limited of the United Kingdom to pursue business opportunities in the airport-baggage and cargo-handlingsystems market in North and South America.

Material Handling Solutions, an operating unit of Lockheed Martin Postal Systems, headquartered in Owego, and Logan Fabricom will address diverse airport and airline customer needs. With the signing of this agreement, both companies entered discussions and are currently finalizing the details on how they will together produce Logan's baggage-and

cargo-handling products in the U.S. Industry analysts estimate the total potential baggage-handling market at $2-3 billion over the next five years.

Tony Gerace, vice president of Material Handling Solutions at Lockheed

Martin in Owego, stresses that the two organizations are just beginning to work together. "The details have not been worked out yet. No money is involved yet." However, he reveals that the work will be done in Owego and in the unit's field offices.

Logan, recognized as a leader in baggage-handling technology, has installed more than 300 baggage systems at 120 airports worldwide. It has a complete line of baggage-handling equipment, including tilt tray sorters, belt conveyors, checkin counters, baggage claims, 100-percent holdbaggage screening, and a full range of software for baggage sorting and reconciliation.

The company is a member of the Fabricom Group of Belgium, Tractebel's technical-services subsidiary. Tractebel is a global energy and services business, with $13 billion in annual sales, and is active in more than 100 countries. Its activities cover not only the electricity and gas markets, but also technical installation services, waste management, engineering, and communications.

Material Handling Solutions, part of Lockheed Martin Postal Systems, applies automation expertise to the material-handling marketplace. It offers applications for a wide range of customers, including warehousing, product distribution, and

order-fulfillment processing.

According to Michael Drake, director of communications at Lockheed Martin in Owego, hiring for this new alliance "has been factored in. We have been aggressively hiring over the last few years." The Owego operation added 400 to its rolls last

year, and will have hired another 400 by the end of this year. "Our employee count right now is 3,800," notes Drake.

Lockheed Martin Postal Systems is a leader in the design, production, and systems integration of a broad product portfolio of recognition, sorting, material-handling, and

information-management systems equipment and technology for postal and commercial customers. It is part of the Lockheed Martin Electronics Platform Integration organization, which provides advanced-technology products, services, and systems-integration solutions.

Copyright Central New York Business Journal Oct 29, 1999
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