For 40 years, Helitrades has been providing structural repairs, field maintenance, and dynamic and hydraulic component overhauls for its loyal customer base of helicopter owners and operators. Over this time, it has built a reputation for delivering its services on time and with care, with an average lead time of just one to three weeks.
The company was established in 1979, and toady has a staff of 19, with facilities in Vankleek Hill, Ontario; Alliston, Ontario; and Airdrie, Alberta.
“We do a lot of hydraulic repair and overhauls,” said Gerald Tom, Helitrades’ president and owner. “We’re a Bell service centre, and we also do overhauls on transmissions for [Bell aircraft].
Helitrades focuses primarily on servicing Bell models, but recently gained the ability to service the Robinson R22 and R44 at its Alliston and Vankleek Hill facilities.
The company’s Vankleek Hill location is a Bell-approved customer service facility for component overhauls on the Bell 205, 206, 206L, 212, 407 and 412. This location also offers field maintenance on the Bell 412.
Established with a commitment to service at the forefront, Helitrades has been passed down through generations of the Tom family with that commitment intact.
Tom’s father founded the company and spent 16 years building it before he retired in 1995 and passed the torch to Tom. Helitrades has continued to thrive ever since.
Serving Many
Helitrades provides repairs and overhauls for aircraft belonging to the Canadian Armed Forces, the Canadian Coast Guard, and other commercial and government operators in various parts of the world.
With its facilities located solely in Canada, it’s no surprise the majority of Helitrades’ business comes from Canadian helicopter operators. There have been roughly 4,900 Bell aircraft manufactured in Canada and roughly 1,000 Bell helicopters operating in the country, which creates an abundance of service opportunities.
“The reason we don’t get as many [customers] from the United States is because they seem to be pretty loyal to going to [facilities] that are already down there,” said Tom. “But that may change in the future.”
Helitrades’ extensive capabilities have led it to provide services for oil companies in the Middle East. Tom said the company supplies spare parts for Bell aircraft to these companies, and it often receives aircraft components from overseas customers that require hydraulic repairs.
Unique Qualities
The majority of Helitrades’ services consist of hydraulic component overhauls.
Since many Bell helicopter models feature hydraulic components manufactured by Woodward HRT Inc., Helitrades decided to become a Woodward HRT-approved facility, making it one of only a few companies that can perform maintenance and overhauls on these components.
“There are only two of us in North America, so we get quite a bit of volume because of that,” said Tom. The company will see HRT hydraulic components from Bell 204, 205, 206, 206L, 212, 407, 412 and 427 aircraft go through its facilities.
Three years ago, Tom and the company purchased Uscan Aviation Sales–a sales, overhaul and major repair facility in Alliston that also specializes in Bell helicopters.
“We wanted to expand our Bell capabilities further, and [Uscan] seemed to be the best way to go,” said Tom. “It was cost-effective to buy the equipment used rather than buying new.”
The move allowed the company to carry out structural repairs for Bell aircraft, including main cabin and tailboom structural repairs for Bell 205, 206 series, 212, 407 and 412 helicopters.
Uscan is now rebranded under the Helitrades name, and its Alliston facility focuses mainly on field maintenance for Bell models, as well as services for the R22 and R44; Helitrades’ structural repair services have been relocated to Vankleek Hill.
Though it focuses mainly on helicopter components, Helitrades will sometimes see entire aircraft go through its facilities. At the beginning of last year, the company received a request from the government of Maine to perform a structural repair on a Bell 206, which was completed in February 2018.
Having the appropriate structural repair approvals from Bell made Helitrades the right candidate for the job. Tom said the low Canadian dollar is also an added bonus for helicopter operators in the U.S. who are looking for the types of services Helitrades offers.
For its Canadian customers, the company does its best to offer cost-effective services with quality results.
“Being a small owner-operated business, we can be more flexible on pricing than larger companies,” said Tom. “Quality is always first, but next [to that], very close, is pricing.” For Helitrades, these are the two key factors it has found customers value most.
For the last 40 years, Helitrades has stuck with what it knows best: Bell helicopters. And its employees have become specialists on the OEM’s rotorcraft. However, broadening the scope of aircraft isn’t entirely out of the question; if an opportunity to expand presents itself, it would be a plausible option, Tom said.
Meanwhile, Helitrades is gearing up for its 40-year anniversary in 2019–a remarkable milestone for any business.
When Insight asked Tom what he believes is the secret to success, he replied: “Quality . . . quality is the main thing, and always coming through on what we promise to do.”
