Minneapolis-based Graco Inc. has paid $116 million to acquire Alco Valves Group, a British-manufacturer of pressure valves used in the oil and gas industry, executives said Wednesday.

The cash purchase of Alco Valves expands Graco's small oil and gas equipment business and gives it an experienced entity that has been in business since 1977.

Alco owns factories in Manchester and Leeds, U.K., and warehouses and sales offices in Houston, Toronto and Singapore. The newly acquired business will maintain its manufacturing and engineering base in the United Kingdom, Graco said.

Graco, with $1.1 billion in annual revenues, is best known for making industrial pumps, sprayers and mixing equipment for vehicle and food factories, as well as sports fields, housing insulators and packaging divisions.

The Alco acquisition may be small, but it enhances Graco's commitment to increase its presence in the fast-growing business of equipment for energy producers.

Graco entered the oil equipment business 13 years ago when it converted a commercial paint sprayer into one that could spray insulation onto oil pipelines. The technology helps the oil stay warm so the pipes don't clog.

Eight years ago, Graco bought an automated-equipment firm that lubricates hot-running compressors along thousands of miles of oil pipeline. Graco then started making lubrication systems for oil rig service trucks and trucks used to haul frac sand. Two years ago, it rolled out a new line of industrial sprayers that insulate oil rigs with fire-resistant foam.

With Alco, Graco gains about $30 million in annual revenues and about $9.7 million in earnings before taxes.

In a statement, Graco CEO Patrick McHale said that Alco's high-tech pressure valves are a "strong fit with Graco's core competencies of designing and manufacturing advanced flow control technologies."

He added that Alco's "additional exposure to the oil and natural gas industry is a logical extension for Graco and a strategically important initiative that will support our long-term sales and profit goals."