Dema S.p.A. and Blackshape Aircraft announce the beginning of their collaboration

Brindisi, April 19, 2022 – Dema (Cairn Capital – Mediobanca Group) and Blackshape Aircraft, a company of the Angel Group, announce the signing of a 5-year supply agreement for the manufacture of structural components in high-tech composite material belonging to the Blackshape BK-160 Gabriel and BS-100 Prime aircraft, which will be produced in DAR, a company of the DEMA group, in Brindisi.

Founded in 1993, DEMA designs, industrialises and assembles aeronautical structures for the leading players in the sector at an international level. The Group, with over 600 employees, has four production plants in Somma Vesuviana (Naples), Paolisi (Benevento) and Brindisi, as well as Dema Aeronautics, a research and development centre based in Montréal (Canada).

Founded in 2009, Blackshape Aircraft, located in Monopoli, in the Apulian aerospace district, is a company specialising in the design and production of training and general aviation aircraft in composite materials.
The agreement will make it possible to create the right synergy between the two companies, pooling the many years of experience in composite processing as a first step for future collaborations that will constitute an added value for the Apulian industrial sector.

Renato Vaghi, President and CEO of DEMA S.p.A., says: “I am very proud to announce the agreement with Blackshape, which marks the beginning of an important collaboration between two companies, in many ways complementary, which can look to the future with optimism, leaving behind the difficulties faced in recent years of a health emergency. It is the result of an agreement between two companies and the open dialogue between companies and institutions, in this case, the Puglia Region, which can guarantee favourable conditions for the growth of the territory.”

Luciano Belviso, Founder and CEO of Blackshape, states: “This agreement is part of a broader strategy aimed at the one hand, to scale up our production capacity and, on the other hand, to help strengthen the positioning of both ours and our network of partners. Blackshape has always believed that investments in technology, product competitiveness, and market development would bring results for the company and the area it operates. I am sure that the synergy with Dema and other companies in the Apulian aerospace district can consolidate our strategy by bringing added value to the territory with an increasingly qualified and leading role in the aerospace scene.”