Umeco plc, ("Umeco"), Europe`s leading provider of value-added distribution services to the aerospace and defence industries, is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a significant new contract by The Boeing Company ("Boeing").

Umeco's Los Angeles-based subsidiary, Richmond Aircraft Products, has won a three-year contract to supply Boeing's Wichita Division with a range of process materials used in the bonding of aircraft components.

Richmond Aircraft Products has a long-standing relationship with Boeing's Seattle assembly facility. However, this is the first time that it has supplied products and services to Boeing Wichita.

Boeing Wichita's site, with operations divided between commercial and military work, occupies about 12 million square feet of covered facilities. With the exception of the 717, it produces part of every Boeing commercial jetliner including 75 percent of the 737, the best-selling jetliner in history. For the next-generation 737-600/ -700/ -800/-900 and Boeing Business Jet models, Boeing Wichita joins the forward and aft fuselage assemblies into one unit prior to onward shipment for final assembly.

Clive Snowdon, Chief Executive of Umeco, said:

"This is excellent news for Richmond Aircraft Products, and for Umeco. It represents a significant extension of our relationship with Boeing, the world's largest aerospace company, and underlines again the value of our strategy of developing a global presence, on which the acquisitions of ABSCOA Industries and Richmond Aircraft Products were based."