Air Industries to open production facility in Poland

Air Industries Group has signed an agreement to open its first overseas facility, a welding production site in Poland, the Hauppauge company announced Monday.

The aerospace components maker will take about 10,000 square feet within a new 50,000-square-foot manufacturing plant of Cincinnati-based Meyer Tool Inc., Air Industries chief executive Daniel Godin said in an interview.

Godin said the co-location deal in Kalisz, Poland, represents an expansion for Air Industries and will not result in job losses at its domestic operations.

“We’ll see how this goes,” he said. “We’d like to grow and service the European market.”

Air Industries, which employs about 400 workers on Long Island and in Connecticut, will apply sophisticated welding techniques in Poland to manufacture General Electric turbines for power plants, he said.

The new business, a foreign branch of the company’s AMK unit in South Windsor, Connecticut, is expected to grow “well north of $5 million over the next 3-year period,” Godin said.

The co-location agreement is designed to combine Air Industries’ welding expertise with Meyer’s machining and grinding capabilities to create a one-stop shop near major customers that will cut costs and hasten production schedules.

Godin said the AMK unit in Connecticut generated more than $4 million last year. The new European operations “will give them incremental growth.”

In October 2014, Air Industries acquired AMK Technical Services with a customer roster of jet engine and power turbine producers that included General Electric, Pratt & Whitney, Honeywell and Rolls Royce.

Godin said the co-location deal evolved from his “very strong relationship” with the owners and management of Meyer.

Air Industries, which posted a 25 percent revenue increase in 2015 to $80.4 million, makes landing gear, engine mounts and flight controls for the aerospace and defense industries.

Shares of Air Industries closed down 1 percent Monday, to $4.80.

By Ken Schachter

kenneth.schachter@newsday.comkschach

Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked at The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.