MonoSol expects to spend $72 million in Indiana as the maker of water soluble films continues what has now become a years-long growth trend. The Merrillville-based company has decided to move beyond its manufacturing footprint in northwest Indiana, with the construction of a manufacturing site for polyvinyl alcohol films at a new 150,000-square-foot plant in Lebanon, Indiana.

MonoSol has been experiencing tremendous growth over the last decade, and the new facility will be designed to potentially expand to more than 400,000 square feet in the future. Any determination on possible expansion in Lebanon will be made later.

“We finally got to the point where business continues to grow and we are needing to go beyond the scope of just being in the region where we are in northwest Indiana. Many of our customers are located farther south of here. We just felt our best option for the company, after doing a site selection study in the United States, was to stay in the Midwest for many different reasons,” said CEO P. Scott Bening .

Lebanon, near Indianapolis, is about 115 miles from the company’s Merrillville headquarters and more centrally located in Indiana.

“The plant is going to be designed to make the full array of our soluble films we produce. The majority of that volume goes into making soluble delivery systems for laundry and dishwasher detergent. There are many other applications as well,” Bening said.

Because of the nature of water soluble films, climate does play a part in where MonoSol locates facilities.

“It wouldn’t be a good idea to make our products in a dry, hot area or a humid area because there’s water in them,” the CEO explained. “We did look around the entire Midwest and the neighbouring states of Indiana were strongly considered. The state of Indiana and the city of Lebanon stepped up.”

Construction is expected to begin soon. Production could begin anywhere from the end of 2019 to the end of 2020, depending on how the project progresses.