Sonex CEO Mark Schaible says he’s hoping that the company will continue in some capacity to support builders of hundreds of kits and the owners of about 700 completed aircraft in the wake of a bankruptcy announcement last week. Schaible told AvBrief there have been dozens of inquiries from people interested in assuming at least part of the company’s day-to-day business and he’s working on a strategy to explore each prospect with Sonex founder John Monnett, attorneys, and advisors. There has been some interest in taking over the entire company as a going concern, but a lot of interested parties are considering parts manufacturing and other support roles. Schaible said he’s also been gratified by the outpouring of personal support from people throughout the industry.
Schaible announced on March 27 that Sonex was ceasing operations and the company and he personally were entering bankruptcy. He cited a “drastic” drop in sales, traced mainly to an active market for used Sonexes, and pressure from the company’s bank and other creditors as key factors in the decision. He said he’s doing his best to minimize the impact on all concerned but wants to stress that this process will take time and urges customers to please be patient while they work with prospective investors and buyers.
The Sonex is a standout airplane design with a stall speed of 40 mph, cruise 150, and honest full throttle 170 mph when built with the Jabiru 3300. The longer aileron option provides a truly delightful positive aerobatic joy ride. I see 4 1/2 gallons per hour with full throttle to 6,500′, 40 minutes cruise, and 20 minutes of aerobatics. No other airplane can match these numbers.
This is a great design that should survive the current economic trauma.
Hiccups are part of any business and Sonex will survive. It seems to me that Zenith would be a good future owner, since they have the capability to make aluminum and composite parts, make widespread use of pulled rivets as in the Sonex line, and they recently expanded their facility in Missouri. Doing as much as possible under one roof with a versatile team capable of handling many tasks is key to survival in the sport aviation industry. Being closer to customers in a part of the US with good flying conditions all year (Southeastern US) might also help.
I feel bad only for the people who put down deposits or bought kits that are still pending and have lost their money and hopes of building their own flying dream. I hope anyone looking to invest in Sonex will think with their financial brains as much as their sympathies – this company went bankrupt for a reason. There’s no point throwing good money after bad. Running a business on a wing and a prayer ain’t ever gonna fly for long.
Sonex failure seems sudden, but there were likely clues that the company was in trouble awhile ago, and its clear that management did not take the steps early on to recognize the problems and take the steps necessary to mitigate it. I get it that GA is a niche market doing low volume sales at relatively high costs per unit – that’s aviation in general. But I don’t see Zenith or Kitfox or even newly resurrected Vans with the same cannibalization issue. For sure, the price of materials and energy and everything has gone crazy in the last year or so for reasons nobody can seem to agree on, but if this company was not strong enough to have contingencies in place, that tells you more about management than the market. Did they hedge their aluminum buys? Did they have receivables and inventory insurance? Companies rarely suddenly faceplant – somebody tripped up earlier.
Tellingly, if one of your stated reasons for going under is that used copies of your product are undercutting new sales, its tells you that your product line lacks updates and new features to draw and keep new buyers, and that your product is too expensive new. I realize that’s weird to hears since Sonex is on the cheap end of GA, and they make their own powerplant too, but that’s reality. Failure to understand what customers actually want and innovate to meet and create demand is fatal to every business. The highwing is a nice evolution, but its too little too late, obviously. The irony here too is that GA companies always note that nobody every buys the base model – they always want to upgrade avionics, interiors, powerplants etc, – the money is there if you make and market a platform that gives people the options they want. Truth is GA is an expensive hobby, not a core need – the companies that know and cater to that are the ones getting by.
The bankruptcy will bring the vultures out, which is a good thing – they will sniff out the carcass and pick off what’s still good. They have a proven airframe, a new high-wing that might be promising, and own powerplant and airframe IP that a foreign aerospace company or R&D shop might want to take and refine.
I do wish them luck, and hope they can at least make deposit holders and partial kit builders whole, and can maybe concentrate on building parts and just models that sell in higher volumes with ruthless efficiency – maybe the Waiex and Highwing and the engines or whatever the stats show. Maybe pursue unmanned versions and powerplant market. It will most likely be done with a foreign investment group at the controls – that’s the trend in GA anyways for the last decade. But just resurrecting the same Sonex company won’t work.
In the past, I thought Sonex built drones for the government. Did they consider building them for Eastern Europe or for Gulf Countries?
Mark can say what he wants about investors but there was a financial lawsuit filed against Sonex Mar 26. That will need to be resolved before anything else happens. Then there are the screwed over customers. Sonex will more than likely survive, but they have a long ways to go and it won’t be under Mark’s leadership.