Full Transcript
Tristan Oualid: To mark the 10-year anniversary of our collaboration with Spairliners, Lokad has traveled to Hamburg to meet with the person that worked very hard on making this project a success. I’m delighted to be joining in studio with Elizabeth Peters. Thank you.
Elizabeth Peters: Hi.
Tristan Oualid: So first of all, Elizabeth, thank you for your time today. Could you introduce yourself and your position at Spairliners?
Elizabeth Peters: Of course. My name is Elizabeth Peters. I’m an American, but I’ve been living in Hamburg for 24 years, and I’m a Sales Director at Spairliners. I work in North America and Australia, and I have some customers in Europe as well.
Tristan Oualid: And what separates Spairliners from other companies in this space?
Elizabeth Peters: Well, Spairliners is a little bit different because a lot of these other companies, other suppliers, are much bigger. We’re a small company, and not only are we small, but we are a joint venture, so we have the expertise and the assets of a larger company.
Tristan Oualid: Okay. And what is the most challenging part of your business, of managing a pool of parts?
Elizabeth Peters: Well, the biggest challenges we experience are, well, I think a lot of our challenges are in the supply chain. But for me, in my position as a Sales Director, our biggest challenge is managing our pool and making sure that our partners and our customers, the airlines, have access to the correct parts when they need them, and that we design the correct home-based stock for them to have on site. And they have no issues with AOGs or delays. I think this would be our biggest challenge.
Tristan Oualid: Okay. And how do you explain what you’re doing with Lokad, what Spairliners is doing with Lokad, to your customers or your prospects?
Elizabeth Peters: Actually, this is the fun part of my job because when we are talking, when I’m talking to a prospect or even an existing partner, but mostly with a prospect, one of their biggest problems or challenges is having the correct on-site stock. Currently, I’m talking to a prospect, and they actually asked us if we could design an on-site stock. This is where Lokad really comes in as an asset for us because with this program, we can actually define what would be optimal, what would be cost effective, and what would be the best fit.
Tristan Oualid: And so from a commercial perspective, how the partnership between Lokad and Spairliners has impacted the value that you can bring to your own customers?
Elizabeth Peters: Well, it’s impacted our value very much so because they’re always very surprised how quickly I say, “That’s not a problem, we can design an on-site stock for you. Just give me a couple of days, let me talk to my team,” and that is a huge value because every prospect is very excited to hear me answer that way.
Tristan Oualid: I guess so. And so how Lokad is helping you to differentiate from other MROs for your potential prospects?
Elizabeth Peters: Well, specifically, as I answered in the previous question, this is one of the ways we do differentiate ourselves from other suppliers. We are very flexible because of this, because we can easily redesign the stock or locate parts and see where they are in our pool. This is a very helpful thing to be able to do at a very quick pace, and not all suppliers can do this.
Tristan Oualid: Yeah, and very rare on the market.
Elizabeth Peters: Yes.
Tristan Oualid: Okay, well thank you, I don’t have any more questions for today. It was a pleasure talking with you.
