Air Industries buys Woodbine Products for $2.7M

Aerospace manufacturer Air Industries Group Inc. has acquired a Long Island company, Woodbine Products Inc., in a cash and stock deal worth about $2.7 million.

Bay Shore-based Air Industries, a manufacturer of landing gear, engine mounts and flight controls for military and commercial aircraft, announced the deal Thursday.

Terms of the deal outlined in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission call for Air Industries to pay the owners of closely held Woodbine $2.4 million in cash plus 30,000 shares of common stock. Air Industries also announced two other acquisitions that were the company's first outside of Long Island.

"This acquisition and the two others on which we have reached tentative agreements reflect our strategy of growth through acquisition, capitalizing on the increased pressure to consolidate to respond to the reality of reduced military spending," Peter Rettaliata, chief executive of Air Industries, said in a statement.

Shares of Air Industries, which employs about 240 and receives about 85 percent of revenue from military work, closed down 3 cents to $9.92 Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Air Industries said Woodbine, which makes metal structures that house aircraft electronics, would remain at its Deer Park factory until the lease expires in December and then transfer operations to Air Industries subsidiary Welding Metallurgy Inc. in Hauppauge.

Air Industries also said it had agreed in principle to acquire two other companies, a sheet metal fabricator in the Southwest that supplies components to Welding Metallurgy Inc. and employs about 35 people, and a New England logistics company that does work for the U.S. military and government, and employs about 13.

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The spokesman declined to name the companies and said that they probably would remain in their current locations.