Avborne Sells Accessory Division to Sargent Dover Corporation has purchased Avborne Accessory Group from the owners of the Avborne businesses based in Miami, Florida. Avborne will continue its heavy aircraft maintenance operation at Miami International Airport, while the Accessory Group becomes part of Dover's Sargent division. Eddie Montalvo will remain at the leadership post at Avborne Accessory, and the Avborne name will be retained. "Like other Sargent companies," said Marcel Zondag, Sargent's vice president business development, "we do keep a certain brand identity. Avborne will be fully integrated within the realm of the Sargent group of companies." The acquisition signals a move by Sargent to align its subsidiary companies in a market-focused fashion. "This is the cornerstone of the aftermarket group," Zondag said. And Avborne will likely be added to, he continued, if the right company can be found to add to Sargent's aftermarket operations. "This is the cornerstone of the aftermarket group," Zondag said. Prior to buying Avborne Accessory, "we lacked a certain amount of mass in the aftermarket. And with mass comes diversity." Sargent has always operated repair facilities for its own products such as hydraulic components. And the trend in the aviation marketplace has been for airlines to seek multiple services from single providers. "Airlines are willing to look at getting broad component support in families of parts," he explained. "Avborne Accessory has seven shops. That allows you to offer your customer broader support. Combine that with our engineering prowess as an OEM and the financial strength of Dover...it's basically a move that allows us to meet the more comprehensive needs of airlines that are outsourcing chunks of stuff and small airlines looking to outsource, too." Sargent will continue to grow its aerospace activities, according to Zondag, with the financial backing of Dover. "We don't want to grow for growth's sake," he said. "It has to make sense, it has to be profitable for the shareholders and the company. The Dover board believes in aerospace in the long run. There's tremendous growth in Asia that's going to happen." To take advantage of that growth, Sargent will look at engineering and production opportunities outside the U.S. "We've opened a production facility in Mexico," Zondag said, "and we're heavily investigating setting up some engineering support in India. It's becoming more of a global industry. We've got to face the reality of where the action is, both in business models and locations. This is all just geared towards placing ourselves in that marketplace and placing our band in the middle of it."