New company forecasts 150 aviation jobs in Claresholm

By Mickey Dumont Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

When BRC Aircraft’s long term flight plan is realized, it could mean the creation of 150 high-paying aviation industry careers in Claresholm.
Zrinko Amerl, BRC Aircraft chief executive officer and president, explained in a Nov. 27 presentation to the Municipal District of Willow Creek council, that the sky is not the limit.
In making his presentation with his son, Marcus, the company’s Montana Floats general manager, says his small, but international company, is going to centre much of its operation in Claresholm.
“That operation, when that’s all going, is going to be big,” Amerl said. “We want it to be something that employs, I’m already saying, 150 locally.” He added BRC Aircraft is planning on bringing in “lots of students” and “having our facility be a training centre for people doing apprenticeships out of the universities.”
BRC Aircraft, Amerl explained, owns and operates pieces of its future business success in Brazil, the U.S., Croatia, Romania and British Columbia. Its plan is to make its Claresholm operation its operational hub. Presently engines are manufactured in Romania; fiberglass body components in Brazil, floats in the United States and, and bring them together in Claresholm for assembly.
“Two weeks ago, I was in Brazil, and I signed an agreement with Volato Company,” Amerl said. “Volato Company is a company that builds all composite airplanes. Eventually, we will be building C-wings as well, with them down in Brazil, and bringing them here as parts to complete them.”
The company has purchased a building, at 4121 – Fifth Street East in Claresholm where it will begin operations, and land at the Claresholm airport.
Airport plans first include the construction of a 7,200 square-feet assembly facility and offices for all of BRC’s divisions.
“This is the first building at the airport here. We have all the framework and everything sitting on the ground (in Claresholm) waiting to be built, but it’s going to take a little bit to get that going. We estimate it will cost around $1.2 million,” Amerl said.
He added the building is now being cleaned and modified for its use. He expects to be up and running there in January, 2025.
Further along in its planning, Amerl told council, a third facility will become BRC’s primary build centre to help the company reach its predicted capacity.
“At that point, we’re going to have all our operations, all our assembly happening here for all our different companies. We’re expecting to be able to do around 100 kits a year of the fiberglass planes. We’re hoping to be able to do 50 Alaskans in a year, 30 engines and 30 floats.”
The Alaskan is a prototype BRC Aircraft is designing from the ground up. Scheduled for completion in summer 2025, it has garnered international attention at shows where a mockup has been displayed. He said BRC stood out at the Oshkosh show (750,000 people) featuring many of the manufacturers of airplanes.
“We were the only company that had our own airplane, our own airplane design. It’s a mock-up right now. It’s not flying yet,” Amerl said to the M.D. council.
“But it will be flying soon. We own the engine company and we own the float company.
“Nobody has that. Absolutely nobody in the world. This was huge for us.”
Marcus explained much of BRC Aircraft’s work relies on research and development. Innovation, he explained, is how the company will stand out from the pack.
Products in the mix now are the Texas Bullet, a four-seater all metal, low wing, fast cross-country aircraft; floats including a Z-Drive model designed for maximum control in moving water in tight spaces and the ALTA4-Volato, a four seat composite aircraft with parts manufactured in Brazil, but the plane assembled in Claresholm.
BRC is also a build assist manufacturer able to help complete your unfinished or stalled airplane projects.
“We’re really excited to get to into that (airport) building as fast as possible. We’re going to be doing all our shipping through North America out of that facility. Basically, this will be a plan of where we want to be in five years and building the business to that level.
“I believe the impact to the community is 150 well-paying aerospace jobs. And when you look at the 150 people and you take the 4.5 ratio of increasing the population, I think we’ll probably be adding about between 800 and 1,000 people to the town.
“We are serious about this. We are an international company. We are a company that has invested a lot of money so far, and we plan to be a backbone of a community.”