January 20, 2026 · Capital & Resources, Innovators
BastCore Expands Alabama’s Advanced Manufacturing Footprint
Manufacturing employs 290,000 people in Alabama and produces more than $50 billion in economic output, nearly double the $28 billion generated 15 years ago. Sustained growth depends on companies identifying critical gaps in national supply chains and building the capacity to fill them. Montgomery-based BastCore has spent the past 11 years doing exactly that.
Coleman Beale, a Montgomery native with a background in banking and finance, recognized both opportunity and a structural bottleneck for textile-focused hemp manufacturing.
Beale co-founded BastCore with McMillan Arrington in 2014 to complete the supply chain.
The company is now the oldest industrial hemp processor in the country. Its name reflects the plant’s components: bast (the fibrous outer layer) and core (the woody interior]. BastCore’s patented technology converts both into textile-grade fiber, automotive composites and building materials that, according to Beale, industry partners consider a global benchmark for quality.
“There are 25,000 potential use cases for hemp and enormous demand, but without processing infrastructure, there was no way to capture it. Farmers could grow the crop, but they had no one to sell it to.” — Coleman Beale
Montgomery offers nearby farmland, road and rail connections, port infrastructure, and a business-friendly regulatory environment. To build his business, Beale returned home where he knew his company could thrive.
He and his team converted a century-old Montgomery steam plant into a 60,000-square-foot processing facility, now the largest of its kind in the country. Operations began in early 2021.
The company developed its decortication and degumming systems from the ground up, which separate hemp’s tough outer fibers from its woody core for industrial use. BastCore is the only processor inventing its own systems rather than retrofitting existing equipment, giving it proprietary ownership and significant cost and scale advantages.
In July 2025, BastCore secured additional growth capital through LendAL to fund equipment purchases and workforce expansion. “This investment is going directly into machinery and the people who operate it,” Beale said. “It’s a true investment into manufacturing infrastructure in the state.”
BastCore CEO Coleman Beale and managing director Austin Bryant in the company’s bale room
Industrial hemp provides farmers with a rotation crop that restores soil nutrients while generating revenue. BastCore transforms what was once agricultural waste into high-value materials. Processing locally keeps the entire value chain in Alabama, shortens supply chains, reduces transportation emissions and creates income streams for farmers. With most of the textile industry now outsourced overseas, BastCore’s model brings production back to Alabama by linking local agriculture to advanced manufacturing. Brands increasingly want to tell a made-in-America story. BastCore makes that possible.
Other states have approached the company about replicating its farm-to-fabric model, but Beale and Arrington have maintained their homegrown focus.
“We made a point to plant our flag in-state and become highly efficient at what we do here before considering expansion elsewhere. That focus has been essential to our success.” — Coleman Beale
Capital access has been critical to expansion. “These investments are catalytic,” said Charlie Pond, executive director of the State Small Business Credit Initiative at Innovate Alabama.
“They unlock private sector matches and move funding into companies building real infrastructure. We’re seeing it in companies like BastCore through job creation, facility expansion and new products reaching the market.”
The shift toward domestic sourcing has created significant opportunity, and BastCore is positioned to capitalize. Its model reflects how Alabama manufacturers are modernizing legacy industries while staying grounded in fundamentals: strategic investment, skilled labor and products with defined use cases.
Alabama’s identity as a state of makers has endured for generations. From early textile mills to steel production to aerospace, manufacturers have always adapted to changing markets. BastCore continues that tradition by building the infrastructure tomorrow’s industries will require.
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