Out of cash, Bellport company closes

A Bellport defense manufacturer has closed its doors after running out of cash.

The Labor Department lists the company as Tactronics Holdings International Llc in a WARN notice, which companies are required to file in connection with a mass layoff or closing. The company-appointed trustee said the company had run out of cash.

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice said that the company closed on June 2 and that 62 workers were affected.

The trustee, Douglas Pick of Pick & Zabicki, a law firm in Manhattan, is overseeing a Chapter 7 liquidation and asset sale. He said he "was very close to a sale of the assets." And the buyer might retain some of the employees.

"Part of the terms we are negotiating is the retention of various employees," he said.

He declined to say how many but noted a New York State Supreme Court judge would have to approve the sale.

Pick said that two companies with slightly different names are involved: Tactronics Holdings Llc, the parent company, and Tactronics Group International, the business that manufactured mainstream electronic equipment and systems for the defense and commercial sectors.

Pick said Tactronics Holdings had been on Long Island since 1992. At one point it focused on networks and equipment used in covert military operations. In 2008 it moved from Westhampton Beach to Bellport, where a 24,000-square-foot facility doubled its manufacturing space.

The company was founded by Billy Silhan, a former Grumman Corp. engineer, and three others.

In 2008 the business had 100 employees on Long Island and 300 at facilities in three other states and in Britain and Australia.