Kent is located in Washington State, 18 miles Southeast of Seattle and 950 miles north of Los Angeles.  Kent was only the second city in King County to incorporate in 1890 with a population of just 793 people.  At that time it was largely an agricultural area with hops as the main crop.   Annual floods continued to enhance the fertility of the valley but this was tamed with the building of the Howard Hanson Dam in 1963.  Today Kent has a population of around 82,000 people with principal industries for employement, including manufacturing, education, health, social services and retail.

Hexcel's business in Kent is a major supplier to the aircraft structures and interiors market, designing, manufacturing and selling a broad range of finished components used in commercial and military aircraft.  The Company's customer portfolio comprises the world's top aerospace and defense contractors including Airbus, Boeing, BAE Systems, Bombardier, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Lockheed Martin and McDonnell Douglas.

The Kent facility, which employs a total of 275 people, covers 507,000 sq. ft. providing 308,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing space.  Additionally it partners with two joint ventures in Asia, each of which have facilities of approximately 200,000 sq ft.