Managers Buy Aerospace Firm, Sister Company

Managers of an Orange County aerospace manufacturer have acquired that business and a sister company in Everett, Wash., in a cash buyout financed by a Washington, D.C., investment firm.

The combined company, Contour Aerospace Inc., will be headquartered in Brea. About 90 people are employed at Contour’s Washington plant and 210 work in the Orange County location.

The company makes a variety of structural components for aircraft, mainly civilian passenger planes, said Lloyd Greif, the Los Angeles investment banker who arranged the deal.

Thomas M. Wallace, formerly president of Contour of California, will be president of the combined company. He and several other managers used financing provided by the Carlyle Group to acquire the companies from their founder and sole owner, Washington industrialist Roger Berger.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Greif said the two Contour companies had combined sales last year of about $60 million and are “very profitable.’ Healthy manufacturing businesses typically sell for more than their annual earnings.

Greif said that Contour is positioned to profit from the recent surge in jetliner orders at Boeing Co. and other aircraft makers.

The company not only supplies Boeing and Rockwell International Corp., whose aircraft operations are being sold to Boeing, but Northrop Grumman Corp., British Aerospace, Saab-Scandia and Canadian aircraft maker Bombardier Inc. as well.

Additionally, Contour supplies parts to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Inc. and Kawasaki Heavy Industries Inc., Japanese manufacturers of aircraft structures.