By Michael Lauzon
CORRESPONDENT
Published: July 3, 2014 1:24 pm ET
Updated: July 3, 2014 1:26 pm ET
Liquid colorants producer American Colors Inc. will expand in Tennessee with a second production factory.
American Colors plans to spend $3.7 million for a facility in Gallatin, about a half hour’s drive from its existing Lebanon, Tenn., plant. The firm expects the 30,000-square-foot operation, which includes a research laboratory, will be fully operational by the first quarter of 2015.
American Colors sells to plastics, composites, coatings, agricultural and related industries.
“Plastics are a growth industry in the United States and China,” said American Colors President and CEO James Oram Wible in a phone interview. In plastics, the company mainly supplies liquid colorants to the thermosets market.
The new facility will create 31 new jobs in Sumner County, American Colors estimated in a July 2 announcement made in conjunction with Tennessee’s Department of Economic and Community Development.
American Colors is based in Sandusky, Ohio, and runs a production operation there. The company also has been producing liquid colorants in Shanghai since 2006 for Asian markets.
Rob Jones, plant manager at the Lebanon locations, also will assume responsibility for the Gallatin plant, Wible said. | 
