Draper Inc., the family-owned shade and projection screen company that's been around since 1902—all of it spent in the small town of Spiceland, Indiana about 40 miles outside of Indianapolis—is growing again.

Draper News facility
The existing Draper, Inc. facility in Spiceland, Indiana.

Plans for a just-announced building will expand the firm's manufacturing facilities by another 20% on the same campus they've occupied since 1921. Draper currently employs almost 750 employees from Spiceland and surrounding areas, not terribly far off the whole town's current population of 962, and they expect to add another 25-30 new positions immediately following the new building's opening. The company's portfolio includes projection screens (motorized, fixed, and folding), A/V mounts and structures, projector and screen lifts, and of course, the rolling shades that launched the company. More recently, Draper branched into gymnasium equipment.

The new building will be the 10th on their company campus and will add an additional 100,000 square feet of space, for a total of 500,000 square feet across all of the buildings. These currently comprise the Draper offices and eight manufacturing facilities. The new space will allow Draper to store more necessary components, create more space for manufacturing, and enjoy flexibility as the company grows in the future. You can learn more about the expansion and get a look inside Draper's current production facilities in the video below.

Along with staying put in Spiceland for its 120-year history, the firm founded by Luther O. Draper has managed to stay in family hands all that time. Current president Chris Broome is the fourth of Luther's descendant's to run Draper, which, more than a century later, now works with dealers across the United States and in more than 100 countries worldwide.

Draper News building location
Draper president, Chris Broome walks the grounds of the new building location.
 

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