State in Talks With Two Foreign Aerospace Companies To Come to Connecticut as Lamont Will Attend Paris Air Show Next Week

Jun. 14—Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont will lead a delegation of economic officials and aerospace executives to next week's Paris Air Show, where he is expected to sign an agreement with a foreign component maker to establish a presence in the state.

John Bourdeaux, president and head of business development for AdvanceCT, said Wednesday that Lamont will be meeting with the chief executive officer of a foreign aerospace component manufacturer to sign a letter of intent for the unnamed company to seal a deal which will bring some of the company's operations to a Connecticut location. Bourdeaux said state officials are also negotiations with a second foreign company that will be at the aerospace trade show that begins on Monday.

"We hope to come back with a couple of announcements," he said. "We've got some good news coming next week from Paris. Companies that are not yet in Connecticut, but certainly by this time next year, those companies will be investing and bringing jobs to Connecticut citizens."

Bourdeaux and Lamont revealed the negotiations during a press conference at Hygrade Precision Technologies in Plainville, which creates high precision machining of parts for the aerospace industry and is one of the Connecticut companies that will be participating in the air show. More than 2,454 aerospace and defense companies from throughout the world will be exhibiting, including 25 companies that have a presence in Connecticut. State officials will also have their own booth at the event.

" Connecticut represents about one percent of the nation's population, about 1.25 percent of GDP (gross domestic product), so we're punching above our weight class," Lamont said. "And about 25 percent of all aerospace parts are made right here in the great state of Connecticut. Our state continues to be the Silicon Valley of manufacturing, not because we make the simple stuff, it's cause we make the most complicated machines in the world."

Connecticut's aerospace industry employs more than 34,000 people and contributes $10.4 billion to the state's gross domestic product.

"Why are we so good?" Lamont asked rhetorically. "We've got the best darn workforce in the world."

Pedro Soto. president and chief executive officer of Hygrade, said his company is taking part in the Air Show because attending allows his team to meet with officials from aviation companies like Airbus and GE Aviation that don't have a presence in Connecticut.

"We are 27 employees strong and they deserve a chance to shine on a world stage," he said.

Lou Melluzzo is president and chief executive officer of Air Industries Group, a Bay Shore, N.Y.-based company that employs 52 people at its Barkhamsted turbine engine division. His calendar is fully booked for the air show, with many of spots filled by "clients that I haven't been able to reach by phone since the start of COVID."

Melluzzo said he finds face-to-face meetings with clients to be more effective.

"It allows me to read body language," Melluzzo said. "If I'm talking to someone in person, I tell how interested they are in what I'm saying before they even say a word."

Connecticut has had a presence at the Paris Air Show since 2006, but this will be Lamont's first trip to the event.

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