British Owner Sells Weber Aircraft for $85 Million : Transaction: The cash buyer of the airliner components maker is Air Cruisers Co. of New Jersey, which is likely to expand its market.

Weber Aircraft Inc., a maker of seats, galleys and lavatories for aircraft, has been sold by its British owner for $85 million in cash.

The buyer is Air Cruisers Co. of Belmar, N.J., which makes aircraft escape chutes, life vests and inflatable boats and is part of Groupe Zodiac, a French manufacturer.

Makers of airplane parts have been hurt by the recession because airlines are buying fewer planes. But the parts business is getting better this year, said Hanson PLC, Britain’s largest industrial conglomerate.

Hanson has been selling less-profitable U.S. operations to concentrate on just a few core businesses, among them tobacco, lumber and aggregates--the sand and pebbles added to cement to make concrete. It said Tuesday that, in addition to Weber, it is selling a maker of metal buildings, a lighting systems operation and a shoe company for $11 million. Together, the three U.S. concerns had sales of $36 million last year and an operating loss of $3 million.

It is also trying to buy another British concern, Ranks Hovis McDougall PLC. Hanson bid $1.3 billion for the food manufacturer this week, but Ranks Hovis rejected the offer as too low.

Hanson Industries, the New Jersey-based U.S. subsidiary, had sales of $7 billion last year and operating profits of $994 million, or about half of the parent company’s total.

Weber says it lost a small amount of money last year on $150 million in sales.

Hanson said the $85 million it got for Weber was nearly twice Weber’s book value--that is, what its buildings, equipment and other tangible assets are worth after subtracting its debts.

Hanson acquired Weber in 1987 as a small part of its $1.8-billion purchase of Kidde Inc., a vast New Jersey conglomerate that also owned spa manufacturer Jacuzzi Inc.; Farberware cookery; companies that make toys, fire extinguishers and golf clubs; a security-guard service; and makers of dozens of products for the auto and aerospace industries.

At the same time, Weber was wrestling with the machinists union over a one-third pay cut at a Weber plant in Burbank. The union refused to yield, and Weber later closed the factory, where it had employed 1,000.

Weber now has 2,200 workers, about a third of whom are at the company’s headquarters in Fullerton and a Brea manufacturing plant. The rest work at a Gainesville, Tex., plant that opened in 1967.

The new French owner is likely to expand Weber’s markets, Hanson said, by opening the door to French airlines.

The sale is expected to close next month pending government approval.