Reflections on 2023
As a new year is upon us, we’d like to reflect on the achievements of the last 12 months. First and foremost, we’d like to thank every client who has worked with us during 2023. We look forward to working with you in 2024.
We are delighted to have seen continued success in 2023, with another year of revenue growth, expansion into new offices, new product development, the forging of new partnerships and a prestigious national accreditation for us as an employer.
Continued growth
From 2022 to 2023, we have seen growth in the eVTOL and Marine markets, and revenue growth of 26%, reflecting greater demand for our niche capabilities and bespoke product design. We have also seen our overall client satisfaction averaging 96% for the whole of 2023. A huge thank you to all our colleagues for their commitment to our clients and their programmes.
Highlights from 2023
Over the last 12 months in our Marine team, we have provided support for vehicular controls for the SSBN, and we have provided critical support for the trials, delivery and in-service maintenance of the SSN.
Our aerospace teams have delivered engineering expertise to four eVTOL start-ups and scale-ups in 2023. We have provided flight physics expertise, support to safety of flight certification and the design of flightworthy equipment, as the Advanced Air Mobility industry navigates the challenges of regulatory compliance and funding in an agile and rapidly evolving industry.
Our Fluid Dynamics and Modelling and Simulation teams were kept very busy supporting a programme to convert a Boeing 757 from a passenger configuration to a Flying Test Aircraft. The programme is utilising our unique capability to reverse engineer aircraft to generate engineering data where OEM support is not available.
We were delighted to enter into an exciting new partnership with Proponent and Materialise to provide certified 3D printed cabin solutions to the aerospace market, enabling airlines and MROs to modify and repair aircraft interiors with improvements to durability, cost-effectiveness and shortened lead times.
Our EASA Design Organization Approval (EASA.21J.807) has enabled us to support many operators with both the design and approval of Major and Minor changes to their aircraft cabins including unique products such as our crew rest and seat blocker solutions. We have also seen success supporting customers with the management of parts obsolescence.
2023 saw our largest-ever order for training and simulation cockpit controls and we also received our first order for flight-worthy controls. Our Cockpit Controls team also launched our new active pedals which were debuted at the industry’s leading Training and Simulation event I/ITSEC 2023 in Orlando, Florida.
Throughout the year we’ve enjoyed making new connections across the globe, attending various events across Europe and the US, including I/ITSEC in the USA; Aircraft Interiors Expo in Germany; and Paris Air Show in France.
Our people
Of course we couldn’t have achieved all this without the dedication of our people. We continued our ambitious growth plans in 2023, welcoming 52 people to the Stirling Dynamics team and expanding our overseas teams, both in Hamburg and Madrid. Whilst we have added experienced engineers to the Stirling UK team, we have also been focusing on building the next generation, and in 2023 we created and ran modelling and simulation training programmes for three cohorts of recent graduates, which is proving to be a big success.
We firmly believe our people are our greatest asset, which is why we are very proud to have been awarded the Great Place to Work status. This is an independently run employee satisfaction survey operated by Great Place to Work which seeks employee feedback on a range of topics from wellbeing through to career progression. We were delighted with the results, which we can also see reflected through our high employee retention rate. Achieving Great Place to Work status is a huge achievement and we are committed to ongoing improvement and development to continue to offer a great working experience for our teams.
Working closely with our Employee Engagement Forum, we also introduced new benefits in 2023, including an employee discount scheme and financial wellbeing services. Everyone at Stirling Dynamics is invited to nominate a local Charity of the Year, which all of our fundraising activities go towards and for 2023, we supported the Bristol Animal Rescue Centre. Well done to everyone who took part in charity runs, bake sales, quiz nights, lunch time craft sessions and raffles!
2024 is already shaping up to be a busy and exciting year and we look forward to delivering some fantastic work with our valued clients, colleagues and suppliers.
