Airbus SAS’s investment of $600 million into an assembly plant for its A320 family of aircraft in Mobile, Ala., would have been unimaginable 17 years ago when she joined the company, the vice president of marketing for North America, said in Atlanta Nov. 6.
Mary Prettyman accepted an economic development award on behalf of Airbus Americas Inc., the Airbus subsidiary, at the 9th Annual Crystal Peach Awards luncheon of the French American Chamber of Commerce’s Atlanta chapter held at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
“It goes to show all of us that nothing is impossible,” she added, calling the U.S. “the center of aviation and a fantastic market,” and that by 2017-18 the Mobile facility will produce four aircraft a month.
She also pointed to Delta Air Lines Inc.’s recent order of 30 “neo” A321s – many of which will come off the Mobile assembly line starting in 2016 providing better fuel efficiency than current models.
With a worldwide demand in the next 20 years for 50,000 aircraft, she said that she was optimistic about the prospects for the industry generally and the Mobile facility specifically.
MAINtag Inc., the recipient of the innovation award, is to provide radio-frequency identification tags for Airbus parts.
Alexis Beurdeley, global sales director for MAINTag who is based in Atlanta, accepted the award on behalf of the company.
G. Eric Raby, vice president, global marketing and commercial development, at AGCO Corp., accepted an economic development award for the company’s expansion of its plant in Beauvais, France.
Mr. Raby leads the company’s global efforts in establishing retail finance solutions and key account relationships in emerging markets and is based at its headquarters in Duluth.
Didier Lailheugue, the chef at the InterContinental Hotel in Buckhead, received the chamber’s award for excellence. He is a member of the Academie Culinaire de France since 2006 and Maître Cuisinier de France since 2012.
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