Bain Capital Investment and Leadership Position Jamco for Growth and M&A Success
Key Highlights
- Bain Capital plans to eliminate operational bottlenecks, expand M&A activities and transform Jamco into a global platform for aviation products to encourage sustained growth in the competitive aerospace market.
- Focus areas include premium cabin interior solutions, seats business and adapting to trends like premiumization and long-haul passenger experience enhancements.
- Addressing supply chain challenges through a dedicated War Room and control tower, Bain aims to improve visibility, responsiveness, and resilience against macroeconomic disruptions.
Private equity firm Bain Capital is preparing Jamco for growth and innovation, supported by a new leadership team and strategic planning.
AviationPros spoke with Nick Gattas, managing director of Bain Capital’s Asia Private Equity team, and Masa Suekane, co-head of Private Equity Investments in Japan for Bain Capital to learn more about their plans.
We also spoke with Kate Schaefer, executive chair at Jamco and part of the company’s new executive leadership team that went into effect on August 1, 2025.
Nick Gattas noted, “We're tremendously excited to bring on industry veterans with over three decades of experience in some of the most high-performing companies in commercial aerospace.”
He added, “They bring tremendous industry depth, but also functional depth in areas like supply chain, manufacturing, commercial strategy, marketing and sales, new product development, program management, and we think that with their leadership, that we can inflect Jamco to a new level of performance.”
How Bain Capital Can Help Jamco Grow
Masa Suekane provided more detail about the Jamco acquisition, stating, “The reason why we invested in Jamco is that we saw lots of potential to be unlocked. They have great technology, great products, a great team on the ground, but there are various bottlenecks on the balance sheet side as well as the governance side, which prevents Jamco from unlocking that potential.”
Suekane added, “I think our job is to eliminate these bottlenecks and then ignite the growth going forward. And then, we anticipate a lot of M&A opportunity utilizing this Jamco platform…I foresee the transformation of Jamco to a global platform, not only the existing product, but also others, and then becoming one of the top global suppliers for the aviation inventory of products.”
On how Bain Capital’s global network and resources play into the team’s plans for growth at Jamco, Gattas said, “We're the world's largest privately owned private equity firm with 200 partners globally, almost $200 billion of assets under management. But for Jamco specifically, we have over 75 investment professionals and portfolio team members in Japan. And I think we've had 11 or 12 of those dedicated to Jamco.”
He also shared insight about the investment team, sharing, “When we acquire Jamco, that helps create a much stronger, more patient balance sheet and plan for necessary investments in things like manufacturing capacity, engineering capacity, scaling up the seats business and acquisitions.”
Gattas added, “So, if there are companies outside of Japan that have really attractive cabin and interior products…our job is to help Jamco acquire them.”
How Jamco Will Adapt to Aviation Trends
Gattas spoke on how Bain Capital is positioning Jamco to adapt to trends in commercial aviation.
He said, “The segment we're most focused on is definitely widebody. But even within widebody, you can segment airlines where there are some airlines where the passenger experience is absolutely core to the airline strategy. Middle Eastern Airlines are a great example, because they want people to book a flight through the Middle East so you can get the seat or the cabin experience that those airlines are offering.”
Gattas continued, “There are probably 20 or 30 airlines in the world in that premium segment focused on long-haul flights with first class as part of their offering. We think that's a great segment to be in, and we see a lot of investment from airlines to refurbish and retrofit their cabin, but also a premiumization of the cabin.”
“Today, a first-class seat in a flagship airline is getting a business-class jet experience or better. There are apartments and suites going into the front of planes on some airlines now, noted Gattas.
“A business class customer on an airline like AA, that product is like a first-class product, really. So, there’s this constant arms race between airlines to provide a more and more premium experience, and it goes all the way into premium economy now looking more like business and economy looking more like premium economy,” he added.
“We think that drives a lot of growth but also rewards companies and suppliers that can innovate and provide innovative solutions that are based on design capabilities or IP or creativity or a real focus on the passenger experience or the cabin crew experience,” shared Gattas.
“That's, what we're focused on, both in terms of new product development as well as bolt-on acquisitions. The companies that can fulfill the needs of those customers, products that can fulfill the needs of those customers, we think are going to be very well positioned for growth going forward,” he concluded.
Why Enter the Cabin Interiors Market and Seats Business?
Discussing the team’s focus on entering the cabin interiors market, namely through the seats business, Kate Schaefer said, “It's an amazing time to be in seats, as a lot of the aircraft that have been in service for a while are staying in service just a little bit longer than people had originally planned because of the delivery issues from Boeing and Airbus.”
Gattas added, “It has created a huge supply/demand imbalance. Other companies had exited the seats business in the pandemic. It's a really difficult business to get into in terms of high barrier to entry, very high cost to get necessary certifications. It's very scarce to get the talent in engineering and design to do seats.”
Gattas continued, “But when we look at Jamco’s capabilities, they have all of that. They entered the seats business over 10 years ago and have gone through the hard work of getting into the market. They have an attractive certified model, the Venture seat, with an existing customer base. They have all the engineers. They have the manufacturing capability. But it was deprioritized in the pandemic because they needed to really focus on survival, as most companies did in the aerospace supply chain.”
“When we look at today, the opportunities to help customers put seats on their planes with their ready-to-go solution, not with something which has a five-year waiting list, we think is really attractive. And the pricing you can get in the market now, because of this supply demand balance, also makes this a much more attractive business going forward than it may have been in the past,” noted Gattas.
How Will Bain Capital Help Jamco Address Supply Chain Challenges?
Gattas spoke more on supply chain challenges in aerospace, discussing how Jamco and Bain Capital plan to address them and how their proposed solutions would affect lead times.
He shared, “There are some short-term and long-term solutions to supply and fixing long lead times, but also building greater supply chain resiliency, such that you can deal with volatility, whether it's pandemics or geopolitics. I think we want to build a supply chain resiliency that can anticipate and respond to a pretty broad range of macro-outcomes.”
Gattas proceeded, “In the short term, for example, the last two months, we've been working with Jamco to set up a supply chain War Room and Control Tower that calls each of the top 50-100 suppliers that you know can be contributing to delayed parts, for example, as one of the causes.”
He continued, “If those parts aren't coming in, that causes delays on Jamco’s end, but getting much better visibility, much closer to those suppliers, visiting those suppliers, visiting Tier 3 and Tier 4 suppliers to see where the bottleneck is.”
Elaborating on the importance of visiting worksites, Gattas noted, “Going to the gemba, the Japanese word for where the work gets done, is key for any level of supply chain transformation.”
“In conjunction with that is how the War Room sets up this cross-functional team and puts in much clearer leadership and business processes that allow for rapid decision making, where you can start to prioritize what needs to move where on a day-to-day basis, to make sure that Jamco’s delivering its product in full, on time,” added Gattas.
“In the long term, part of this supply chain strategy is things like, what should you be buying from Tier 2 or Tier 3 suppliers? What should you be making in house, and where should you be making that?” Gattas explained.
When asked how customers and industry partners may see the impact of these changes within Jamco, Gattas answered, “We're excited for Kate to go meet customers and airlines, and that's going to start today. But going into the Tier 2, Tier 3, Tier 4 supply base and driving a comprehensive supply chain transformation, that's going to take longer…three, six, nine months. But it's also never going to stop. Part of the transformation is a culture of continuous improvement.”
He continued, “There are going to be different time horizons depending on the complexity of the issue. Now that Jamco is a private company, we have the leadership in place. We have the existing leadership of Jamco supporting us as well. We feel like we've got all of the right preconditions in place to move forward quickly.”
