News
Eurocopter Canada opens customer service centre in Richmond, B.C.

CEO Marie-Agnes Veve and  Richmond BC Riding, MP Raymond Chan (cutting the ribbon) while others look on.

Oct. 9, 2008, Richmond, B.C. – Eurocopter Canada opened a new eleven thousand square foot customer service centre in Richmond, B.C. yesterday as part of it ongoing commitment to, and development of, the Canadian Helicopter market. The new multi-use warehouse-office building replaces a much smaller facility located at Vancouver International Airport that Eurocopter had been using previously, and will employ ten people full time.

Eurocopter Canada President and C.E.O.Marie-Agnes Veve says the new facility will enable Eurocopter to provide better service in the areas of sales, technical support, and logistics/spare parts delivery. While not co-located at the nearby airport, Eurocopter Chairman of the Board Pierre MacDonald said the10km distance to YVR is not an issue that will affect the company's ability to serve its' customers. “Our people are on the phone, or we're on their site” he said. And with daily courier pick-up of priority shipments, parts can be delivered to almost anywhere in Canada overnight said MacDonald.

VIH Helicopters Vice President Rick Burt sees the new facility as a way to improve their operations through enhanced logistics and parts management. “Its going to take pressure off our logistics and enhance our 'just-in-time' capabilities” he said. VIH Helicopters, who employs over 250 people, is in contact with Eurocopter on a near daily basis with requests for parts, maintenance and technical questions, or sales inquiries, which currently includes an option on six of the as yet unfinished EC-175s,(over which they are in consultations with Eurocopter).

In the warehouse, Peter Swinnard, Eurocopter's Western Canada Technical Representative, says the added space and new facility are 100 per cent better than the previous space at the airport. Swinnard points to the two new dedicated shipping terminals for direct data entry and order processing of shipments. The main function of the warehouse according to Swinnard is getting parts to the customer, and that will be easier with more room. “we used to have to move stuff out of the way to get to the stuff we wanted before, now we just go to the shelf and get it” says Swinnard.

The new warehouse will keep inventory for all of Canada, which Swinnard points out will have the added benefit of being on west coast time, giving customers additional time to place orders which can be shipped the same day compared to housing the inventory in eastern Canada, where shipping times would be cut-off much earlier in the day.