Alliant Techsystems Acquires Eagle Industries

(MoneyWatch)  Eagle Industries is a private company that primarily makes personal gear for soldiers such as backpacks and storage containers for gear. That company had bought the plant formally belonging to Michael Bianco Inc. in New Bedford, MA. That company sold it as the founder was convicted of various crimes including hiring illegal aliens to work on defense contracts. Now Eagle Industries has been purchased by Alliant Techsystems for an undisclosed amount. SouthCoastToday.com reports that this latest purchase by the much larger company has led to concerns that the local plant will be closed. Currently about 350 people work there. Since Eagle will be operated as a wholly owned subsidiary for now Alliant has not made any decisions yet on how they will restructure the new part of their company. If there will be a significant decline in defense spending over the next few years which is not known as the Obama administration has yet to announce their budget there may be another wave of consolidation in the industry as occurred in the Nineties when the last significant cuts were made to the defense budget.