WOOD DALE, ILL. - Harbour Group Ltd., a St. Louis holding company that buys small and mid-sized manufacturers, has completed the purchase of auxiliary equipment supplier AEC Inc. AEC will expand because of the purchase, said Gilman King, who remains as AEC president and chief executive officer. Harbour Group will invest in the Wood Dale firm and make complementary acquisitions and focus on quality, service and becoming a low-cost producer, King said.
Harbour Group and AEC officials could not be reached for more comment. Harbour Group bought AEC from Delcorp Inc. of New York. Terms were not disclosed. AEC employs nearly 1,000. The acquisition includes AEC facilities in Wood Dale; North Uxbridge, Mass.; Milwaukee; and Elk Grove Village, Ill.
Founded in 1976 by Sam Fox, Harbour Group owns about 40 firms with combined sales of more than $500 million and more than 5,000 workers. Many of the firms are metal formers or supply metalworking machines.
Since 1992, four Harbour holdings have gone public. DT Industries Inc., which went public in April 1994, includes plastic thermoforming machinery maker Sencorp Systems Inc. of Hyannis, Mass., which Harbour bought in 1993. It also owns custom injection molder, Engineered Polymers Corp. in Mora, Minn.
