Stony Creek Colors
Springfield, Tennessee (Robertson County)
Financing equipment and facility renovations for textile manufacturer that is replacing harmful synthetic textile dyes with an environmentally-friendly bio-based natural dye process.
The Project
Stony Creek Colors’ (Stony Creek) is a 9-year-old manufacturer delivering the most reliable and sustainable plant-based colorants sourced from renewable indigo crops grown by small and medium size local farmers. These dyes are displacing synthetic textile dyes, which are a leading cause of industrial wastewater pollution.
In 2016, the company leased and outfitted a 12,000 SF production facility (with the ability to expand to 80,000 SF) housed in the historical Conwood building, an old dormant tobacco processing plant. The project will activate the remaining space, growing production to 6 million pounds by 2021, up from 1,500 lbs. in 2017.
Community Impact
- Create 232 jobs with training, and wage progression opportunities.
- Estimating annual reduction of 2.3 million gallons plus 2.2 million pounds of hazardous chemicals, enough to fill the equivalent of 145 railcars, compared to using synthetic dyes.
- Nearly 100% of the company’s cost of goods sold sourced within a 100-mile radius of the factory, much of it from rural farmers.
- Impacting and benefiting 75+ farmers, providing a competitive alternative to declining tobacco manufacturing and providing an economic jump start to local farmers.
Financing
- Total Project Costs: $12.3 million
- Total New Markets Allocation Secured: $6.8 million
Project Partners
- AMCREF Community Capital
- Capital One, N.A.
- Stoney Creek Colors
- Local indigo growers
