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Akzo Nobel Coatings moves North American HQ to Nashville

October 13, 2006 — Powder coating manufacturer Akzo Nobel Coatings Inc. wll relocate its North American headquarters from Cleveland to Nashville, joining a growing number of companies that are choosing the Tennessee capital for a home base. An estimated 50 new high-value jobs will be created by the move.

The company is a business unit of Akzo Nobel, a Netherlands-based Fortune 500 company with 61,500 employees and subsidiaries in more than 80 countries. Its 2005 revenues totaled 13 billion euros.

The company‘s headquarters will be housed in an addition to its current manufacturing facility in Nashville, which employs 125. It will also relocate its technical laboratories into a $1.5 million, 6,500-square-foot research-and-development laboratory currently under construction. It had already invested $3 milliion in a local raw materials storage facility.

“This illustrates our strong commitment to the American market,” said Akzo Nobel Chairman and CEO Hans Wijers at the headquarters groundbreaking ceremony on Oct. 11. “Our investment in Nashville demonstrates a continued contribution to the U.S. economy in research and development and job creation.” He added that the company was attracted to Nashville by its economic growth and central location.

A consortium of state and local organizations, including TVA, the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, and the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, succeeded in recruiting the firm to the area, according to a company statement.