In a rebranding effort announced today during its annual press conference at its Paris headquarters, the manufacturer of the TBM 900 will henceforth be known as Daher, dropping the Socata name that the company has used since 1966. The move comes six years after Daher acquired a 70-percent stake in Socata.
The company also recapped its successful year, following the launch of the new TBM 900 turboprop single at last year’s press conference. Daher captured a 20-percent market share at the lower end of the business aircraft market and its sales of TBMs climbed 28 percent last year, with orders for 64 aircraft recorded, according to chairman Patrick Daher. The U.S. remains the largest market for the turboprop single—“far beyond Brazil and Europe,” he noted—with 75 percent of TBM sales logged there.
Daher, which is also active in energy and as a Tier 1 aerospace supplier, said revenues increased by 3 percent year-over-year, to €970 million ($1.1 billion), and it expects further growth in the coming years.
The company delivered 51 TBM 900s last year, 27 percent more than the 40 it delivered in 2013.