Coltala is at the races
Coltala Aerospace offers MRO services, as well as parts manufacturing for biz liners, commercial aircraft and military.
On the edge of London sits the town of Slough. Widely characterised as grey and dreary, its reputation is why the office where disgraced MI5 agents are sent in the hit British television series Slow Horses is named Slough House. The title of the show comes from the nickname assigned to those agents.
Fort Worth, Texas-based private equity firm Coltala Holdings is the direct opposite. The name is derived from colt, meaning a young male horse, and ala, which is Latin for wing.
Founded in 2018, the company has deployed more than $400m in sectors like healthcare and construction, and, as of early 2025, aviation. “The company is growth-focused, with a focus on mission and margin which makes us different,” Suresh Narayanan, who started last week as chief commercial officer, tells us.
Before joining, Narayanan helped the company get into aviation, advising it on the acquisition of Evans Composites, its first aviation business. Since then Coltala Aerospace has bought parts manufacturer AeroParts Machining and repair consultant Aircraft Certificate Design and Consulting. The company is headed by Phil Bathurst, who led commercial aviation maintenance firm Aspire MRO.
Coltala Aerospace offers MRO services, as well as parts manufacturing for biz liners, commercial aircraft and military. “The smallest aircraft we might have in shop is a Global or a Gulfstream. The majority of our work is supporting commercial and military fleets, whether that’s component repair, overhaul, or engineering for an airline, another MRO, or turning parts for distributors and teardown companies,” says Narayanan.
“We have over 100,000 square feet down here in Mansfield, Texas. That’s just shop space, and then you have offices. The team is at about 100. We also have an engineering team in South Florida and Dallas, about 20 engineers total.”
Suresh Narayanan, chief commercial officer, Coltala Aerospace.
Narayanan exited JetsMRO, the company he founded, in March when it was acquired by FlyHouse. He says he learnt a lot launching his own company and is applying it to his new role.
“My previous endeavours taught me how hard it is to build a team from scratch, and how important it is to have people who specialise and know one side of the arena really well. I always focus on people. It is really the team that delivers. That’s the same reason Coltala Aerospace is so attractive. The team’s already there,” he says.
Narayanan believes MROs and Part 145 repair stations are often too willing to take a cheque. “They say yes to anything that pays and they don’t deliver. I think we [Coltala] know exactly who we are. We’re good at composite repairs, the bigger, larger components, overhauls. We have engineering, and we stay in that lane and do really well at it,” he says.
Looking forward, with a scaled shop already established, Narayanan says Coltala has to get its name out there. It is a congested market; there are more than 3,500 Part 145 repair stations in the US.
“There are a lot of 145s, but I always argue there aren’t many that specialise and do it well. I think a lot of it is just awareness. Evans has been around for more than 20 years, but people just don’t know Coltala as a household name yet,” he says. “There’s a huge opportunity to share that we’re already doing it. This isn’t a promise of how good we’ll be in the future.”
In Slough House, the slow horses go out of their way not to be noticed. For Coltala and Narayanan getting noticed is now a big part of the job.
