Coating plant to open in Lexington, will create 120 jobs

Tru-Tone Finishing Inc., a full-service e-coating and powder coating company, will open a plant in Lexington that will provide 120 jobs, according to a news release from Gov. Matt Bevin’s office.

“Tru-Tone’s exciting announcement is further evidence that our automotive and industrial sectors continue to attract strong, thriving companies to Kentucky,” Bevin said in the announcement.

The plant will be at an existing 70,000-square-foot building on Baker Court near the intersection of Georgetown and New Circle roads. The plan is to operate with three 35-employee shifts.

E-coating is widely used in the auto industry for corrosion resistance, but it’s also used in construction, telecom and agricultural equipment. Powder coating is a method of applying a decorative and protective finish to virtually any type of metal.

The plant’s e-coat metal-finishing process will serve Lexington and surrounding counties.

Tru-Tone plans for the plant to open this summer and add powder coating in 2019.

The company was preliminarily approved in December for as much as $500,000 in tax incentives by the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority.

Tru-Tone also can also receive resources from the Kentucky Skills Network. That would enable it to receive no-cost recruitment and job-placement services, reduced-cost customized training, and job-training incentives.

The company, founded in 1986 in Addison, Ill., opened a Brownsville, Texas, plant in 2012.

This story was originally published January 31, 2018 at 5:50 PM with the headline "Coating plant to open in Lexington, will create 120 jobs."