NB Coatings expands in northwest Indiana

LANSING - NB Coatings, a Japan-owned manufacturer of automotive coatings for plastics, recently broke ground on a new facility in Hobart, Indianan.

NB Coatings North America, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan-based Nippon Paint which is based in Lansing, will invest more than $4.7 million to establish operations at NorthWind Crossings Industrial Park in Hobart. Developed and owned by Becknell Industrial, the new 124,800-square-foot structure will serve as a warehouse and distribution facility for finished products and raw materials for both domestic and international automotive original equipment manufacturers and suppliers across North America.

A foam fire suppression system will also be installed to ensure the product is stored safely.

"Since we service the automotive industry and tier suppliers, most of our customers are either north in Michigan and into Canada or south in Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama," said Jack Wickham, vice president for NB Coatings.

"The U.S. growth of the industry is in the southeast. We quickly narrowed our search to an area that was close to our manufacturing plant in Lansing and also had very good access to the main north-south corridor of I-65 and the Michigan corridor of I-94,"

NB Coatings, which employs 395 associates in North America, plans to start moving into the facility in January 2017 and begin hiring for material handling positions later this year. The new facility is expected to create 22 new jobs by 2018, Indiana officials said.