07:30 PM CST on Friday, February 10, 2006

Associated Press

GREENVILLE, Miss. – A Texas-based cabinet maker will open a 650,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Greenville later this year.

Trio Industries Group of Dallas said in a news release Friday that the Greenville facility will produce finished wood products using a polymer-based acrylic dry powder coating. Initial employment will be about 100 workers, the company said.

The company, founded in 2001, has completed the $1.85 million purchase of the former Brinton's U.S. Axminster facility and started a $3.5 million renovation.

Equipment delivery and operational startup are scheduled by late 2006.

"Greenville and the Mississippi Delta are on track for an immediate and growing economic boost in terms of job creation, improved tax base and agricultural diversification with the addition of a company that is on the cutting edge of wood products manufacturing, engineering and technology," Gov. Haley Barbour said in a statement.

Barbour said officials were also excited about plans by Trio for future innovations by exploring advanced research opportunities with Mississippi universities.

Trio's initial production line will produce kitchen cabinets to be sold through large home improvement retailers and housing developers. The total wood product market is roughly $40 billion annually, with an estimated $14 billion spent on kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities.

"Trio's strategic, organized and measured approach to advancing this project in stages caught our attention and has gained our respect," said Greenville Mayor Heather McTeer Hudson. "Trio was looking for a long-term partner and a place to grow, not just a place to site a facility."

Officials said Trio's decision will lead to kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities produced in the Delta being sold in large retail stores nationwide.