National Office Furniture to retool Fordsville plant

National Office Furniture will invest more than $4.5 million to retool its factory in Fordsville, Ky.

National Office Furniture is a subsidiary of Jasper, Ind.-based Kimball International Inc. (NASDAQ: KBALB).

The retooling of the plant, which is located in Ohio County in western Kentucky, will include the installation of “green” technology, according to a news release issued Thursday by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development.

National Office Furniture will add an ultraviolet light-cure finish process for a water-based UV finish it puts on its casegoods, according to the release.

The project will eliminate the use of solvent-borne coatings and the manual application of clear-coat finish materials.

National Office Furniture employs 203 people at the plant. The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority recently granted Kimball preliminary approval for as much as $615,000 in tax benefits under the Kentucky Reinvestment Act.

The act was revised during special session of the 2009 Kentucky General Assembly. It reduced applicants’ required investment to $2.5 million from $100 million, and eliminated the requirement that applicants employ 1,000 people to qualify for the tax benefits.