Alcobra Metals Inc., a Spokane specialty metals processor that services machine-shop and fabrication industries, has acquired Spokane precision metal-cutting company ShapeCut Industries LLC and plans to combine the capabilities of both companies, says Alcobra owner Kelly Beechinor.

Beechinor says Alcobra is developing a $2.2 million, 20,000-square-foot building at 3811 E. Rowan, where it plans to move ShapeCut’s assets in late summer.

ShapeCut currently is located at 3410 E. Trent.

The ShapeCut name eventually will transition to the Alcobra brand, Beechinor says.

He says Alcobra is bringing on six ShapeCut employees.

Alcobra currently has 11 employees based in a 17,000-square-foot building at 4511 N. Freya, where the company’s main operations will remain.

Alcobra processes metal rods, tubing, sheets, plates, beams, and custom parts and shapes. The company specializes in handling brass, bronze, aluminum copper, titanium, chrome molybdenum, stainless steel, and other alloys.

The company was founded in 1992, and Beechinor bought it in 1994.

Alcobra’s customers are generally based throughout the Inland Northwest, although the company also sells and ships products nationwide and internationally through its website.

The company’s annual revenue has grown in recent years, and the ShapeCut acquisition should lead to further sales growth, Beechinor asserts.

“We’re going to expand into different cutting capabilities,” Beechinor says. The ShapeCut acquisition will bring 3-D water jet and laser cutting capabilities to the company.

A water jet uses a fine stream of water mixed with an abrasive and can cut most any material, including materials that can’t be shaped by other machine tools.

A laser cutter cuts metals and other materials by melting or burning them with a highly intensified and focused beam of light.

Beechinor says Alcobra had planned to expand its cutting capabilities in the facility that’s under construction, when ShapeCut owner and general manager Steven Hermann, who was looking to retire, approached him with an offer to sell the business.

Alcobra also will use some space in the new structure for storage.

“A lot of it is a warehouse for purchasing mill-direct volumes for better pricing.”

Pro Builders General Contractors LLC, of Spokane, is the contractor on the project, and LaBar Architecture Inc., also of Spokane, designed it.