Winona Powder Coating Opens New Facility
Winona Powder Coating Inc. held a grand opening celebration today to officially welcome the new Etna Green production plant at 9876 W. Old U.S. 30.
The grand opening of the 167,000-square-foot facility, which is the former location of Shulte Homes, according to owner and CEO Jamie Visker, “will increase efficiency and allow us to offer a wider selection of parts.”
“This industrial property in Etna Green provided the perfect location for Winona Powder Coating to expand,” added Visker. “We had outgrown our facility in Mentone and to find such a building only 9 miles away is simply amazing.”
The Mentone facility, which was just 30,000 square feet, suited the company well for years, but with tremendous expansion and growth, the new facility provides Winona Powder Coating with a state of the art powder coating line featuring a 5-stage washer, automatic and manual coating booths and digitally controlled ovens. The new line can coat parts up to 72 inches high by 36 inches wide and up to 24 feet in length.
With the Etna Green facility, Winona Powder is responding to customer demand to expand its coating offerings, which will in turn create jobs in the community.
“This is an exciting day for the county, the town of Etna Green and the people as a local company grows into a vacant building to bring new investment, new jobs and state of the art technology,” added George Robertson, president of Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation.
Visker said, “The town of Etna Green, the Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation and the state of Indiana came together to provide a great package of economic incentives to assist in this expansion. This location, along with our 500,000 square feet in Elkhart, will allow Winona Powder Coating to continue to provide the best powder coating services in the northern Indiana and southern Michigan area.”
The expansion represented a $5 million capital investment and an additional 25 jobs over the next several years. “Kosciusko County is proud of Winona Powder Coating as one of our growing entrepreneurial companies, and proud of the quality workers they find here that makes a company successful,” said county commissioner Brad Jackson.
Winona Powder Coating has been in business since 1974.