Piper looking for MENA sales and service agents

The company says it is planning to appoint new dealers in 12 emerging markets to support its international expansion plan. 

Piper president John Becker told a press conference at the EAA event at Oshkosh USA that it also plans to appoint dealers to look after Central Africa, the Caribbean, Central America and parts of Eastern Europe . He says in Africa Piper now only has representation in the southern part of the African continent and it does not have any representation in Central America or the Caribbean except for Mexico.

"Our goal is to have representation in every country around the globe," Becker says.

Piper chief executive Kevin Gould told reporters that the manufacturer is issuing requests for proposals to dealers and service centres. The company is likely to have a strong presence in the asia Pacific area following the buy-out of the company in May by a Singaporean investment business, Imprimis. Gould says Piper only has one dealer in the region, in Japan, while Australia and China are currently represented by agents that can sell aircraft but do not offer services or parts.

"For the last 20 years we haven't been fully positioned around the world. It's great to get that representation again and have a Piper flag in every country," Becker said.

Piper expects to appoint the new dealers later this year and decided to have an open tender to see what's available.  "We don't want to self-select," Becker says. "We want the global market to have the opportunity to go out and say they want to represent us."