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A Kernersville aircraft maintenance and sales company plans to bring 120 jobs to the town when it moves a sister company from Oklahoma, the company said Monday.

Piedmont Aviation Component Services will invest $5.8 million by relocating Limco, according to Gov. Bev Perdue's office.

The state has pledged $44,000 from the One North Carolina Fund. The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners has also pledged incentives worth $44,000 to the company.

Piedmont's jobs will pay an average of $44,805 a year, not including benefits. This is more than the Forsyth County annual average wage of $39,936, according to the news release.

Piedmont Aviation has additional operations in Winston-Salem. It operates with Limco Airepair under the umbrella name Limco Piedmont.

Limco, based in Oklahoma, offers repair and maintenance services to the aerospace industry and makes heat-transfer equipment for aircraft manufacturers, according to the news release. Piedmont Aviation Component Services' roots stem from the 1940 creation of Piedmont Aviation in Winston-Salem, the founder of Piedmont Airlines.

"Piedmont is a well-financed company with a global customer base. The company chose to consolidate operations in North Carolina after careful analysis and review of assistance from local and state resources," Ehud Netivi, president of Piedmont Aviation Component Services, said in a statement. "The business climate and quality of the work force in North Carolina are outstanding. The move will help fuel continued growth and ensure a highly efficient operation."

The Piedmont Triad is building a strong aviation industry, and that was likely a factor in the decision, said Bob Leak Jr., president of Winston-Salem Business, one of the city's economic development groups.

He said that the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce was the lead agency in recruiting the company to Forsyth County.

With Honda Aircraft, FedEx and GTCC's popular aviation curriculum at Piedmont Triad International Airport, Leak said, "we're starting to see a really nice cluster around aviation and aviation-related products."

Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com