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FEBRUARY 2016 AviationPros.com 11 T he deal, three years in the making, started at NBAA 2013, just two weeks after CEO and President Harley Kaplan and Mark Iddon, executive vice president of sales and marketing, started at Tronair. "We met John and Jace Morgan, the former owners of Eagle, and the idea kind of foated between us all," Kaplan said in a December phone interview just after the announcement of the acquisition. "But at the time, our platter was more than full, just trying to understand Tronair." But the four, as well as Josh Green, vice president of strategic planning and Tronair's CFO, stayed in touch. The Tronair trio found their footing in Ohio and called their coun- terparts to the north again in May of last year. "They were kind of coy sellers, but it was pretty obvious to us that they were interested in furthering the conversation," Kaplan says. "It just made a ton of sense, and so we were fortunate to be able to strike a deal with John and Jace, and the rest is history." Former Eagle owner Jace Morgan has stayed on in a consultation capacity and will remain in that role at least through the bulk of 2016. Immediately, the question was what would happen to the Eagle product line, the Eagle name and, most importantly, the 30-plus people who design, create, make, sell and support decades of Eagle products? "I really believe that only a conceited CEO would ever get rid of the Eagle brand name, and I try not to be that guy," Kaplan said TRONAIR'S PRODUCT SERVICE GROWTH Tronair currently supports their products through 13 product service centers, including the Tronair head- quarters, in 11 countries and on four continents. In 2016, there are plans to add as many as 25 new service centers through a new training and certifcation program. Additionally, service technicians will spend time in both Toledo at Tronair and take the hour long trip to Taylor, MI to become certifed on Eagle products as well. CURRENT SERVICE CENTERS: X Holland, OH X Pennsylvania X Quebec X Brazil X Thailand X France X Germany X Italy X Lithuania X Turkey X United Arab Emirates X United Kingdom POTENTIAL 2016 SERVICE CENTERS: NORTH AMERICA: X Cleveland X Bethany, OK X East Granby, CT X New Bern, NC X Wichita, KS X Teterboro, NY X Tampa X Dallas X Redding, CA X Los Angeles X Houston X Las Vegas X Sherwood, OR INTERNATIONAL: X China X Singapore X Australia X Philippines X Indonesia X Switzerland X The Netherlands X Saudi Arabia X Nigeria