GippsAero's new Director - Global Business Development, Steve Maltby, is settling in well to his new role.
Before joining GippsAero, Maltby was the Regional Sales Director representing Cirrus in Oceania and Australasia and before Cirrus he held sales positions in Japan and the USA.
To Maltby falls the job of taking GippsAero and its products to the next level. With so many new developments coming from the Latrobe Valley factory, Maltby has had to set some priorities.
"For Gipps Aero and the GA8 Airvan, I have short-term priorities and long-term priorities. The obvious is to build on our sales numbers, which I’m pleased to say the sales team has started to chip away at. We set a target for our last quarter and exceeded the numbers comfortably. However, in a typical Antipodean way, GippsAero has been guilty of understating the capabilities of the company as well as just how good the GA8 Airvan really is.
"I plan to get GippsAero to blow their own trumpet more; get out in the market more, fly lots of demos and re-engage our customer base. Internationally, we have to build brand awareness in order to support our growing dealership network. Quite soon, the industry will see and hear a lot more about GippsAero and the GA8 Airvan.
"Meeting our existing Airvan operators has been an eye-opener. One existing Airvan Operator said quite frankly 'If it wasn’t for the Airvan, I would not be in business today.'
"Another operator told me they start their new pilots in the Airvan, let them build up some experience before moving them onto the smaller C206. This is an indication of how safe and easy to fly the GA8 Airvan really is.
"As for ongoing local sales: Australia is our own back yard, however, our sales last month were in New Zealand (where they really love the Airvan). I would like to see a few more sales in Australia this month. We are ready to deal."
Maltby's appointment is one several new movements at GippsAero with new CEO Keith Douglas taking over from Terry Miles, who has been kicked upstairs to parent company Mahindra, working on special projects. Don Love has been appointed as new Chief Technical Officer.