Badger Color Concentrates Inc. plans to develop its East Coast presence by opening a facility in Kings Mountain, N.C., by early fall.

The Mukwonago, Wis.-based business earlier this year bought a Kings Mountain building that had formerly been an Indian Motorcycle Co. factory. Now Badger is busy preparing the plant to produce liquid and concentrates, according to President Mike Fatta.

He said the company is installing silo pads at the 50,000 square foot factory, and the target date to start production is late summer or early fall.

“It’s on 11 acres, which is nice for us. It is already set up so that we can double the size,” Fatta said in a telephone interview.

He said the facility will have 25 employees as it gets up and running, but that it could grow very fast. He estimated it could have as many as 125 workers in the next 7 years.

“We were running out of capacity here [in Wisconsin],” he noted.

The company, which was founded in 1998, operates out of two buildings in Mukwonago and has 125 employees.

“This will allow us to expand even more. We actually plan to add to our other site. That’s our next step, but we first have to get North Carolina running,” Fatta said.

Badger has grown just about every year except a flat spell in 2008-2009, said Fatta, and now is doing about $30 million annually in sales. He said packaging, especially for food, is a growth area.

He looked at many sites on the East Coast before deciding that Kings Mountain was the best fit. The plant can ship product in one day to customers up and down the coast, and it is near a new facility that its customer AptarGroup Inc. built in May 2011, in Lincolnton, N.C.

He said local and state officials have been very helpful. The company is receiving tax incentives from the county for investing in new machinery.

“It is a nice community and we really liked it. We felt that it is a place where you could go and bring in a big customer and not worry,” Fatta said, noting that it is a rural area that is not far from Charlotte.

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