Liquid color supplier ColorMatrix Corp. will move from Cleveland to nearby Berea, Ohio, by the end of the year.
The move will allow ColorMatrix to consolidate all of its local manufacturing into a single floor in a single building, Chief Executive Officer John Haugh said by phone May 3. Currently, the firm occupies three floors in one building while handling warehousing out of a second structure. The switch will increase efficiency 20-30 percent, Haugh said.
The new site covers 130,000 square feet, which Haugh said is 40,000 square feet larger than the current location. The new building also has rail spurs and multiple loading docks.
All 150 of ColorMatrix's Cleveland employees will make the move to Berea, according to Haugh. ColorMatrix worked with Cleveland city officials for more than a year to find an alternate site for the firm, but were unable to find a one-floor location, he added.
ColorMatrix has been at its current site since 1993. Globally, the firm has eight production sites. Its most recent addition was a technical service center - handling product testing and application development - that opened in February in the Netherlands.
Haugh said he expects the move to Berea to begin in November. The firm's current lease expires at the end of the year. ColorMatrix will lease the new site, which has been vacant for two years and last was occupied by a publishing firm.
ColorMatrix had sales of about $100 million last year and expects to post double-digit sales growth for the fifth straight year in 2004. Haugh said recent growth primarily has come from the plastic packaging market.
Haugh founded the firm, which claims to be the world's largest liquid color supplier, with partner Michael Shaughnessy in Cleveland in the late 1970s. Shaughnessy remains with the firm as president.
