Winnipeg company gets funding to move newly acquired U.S. firm’s operations to Manitoba

ManitobaA Winnipeg-based company is moving some of its newly acquired operations from the United States to Winnipeg.Province, feds contributing $159K to help Duha Color Services move equipment, operations from IndianaThe Canadian Press · Posted: Nov 12, 2025 4:02 PM EST | Last Updated: 3 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 2 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Duha Color Services makes colour sampling tools such as paint swatches. The company is in the process of moving operations from a recently acquired U.S. competitor to Winnipeg. (Jeff Stapleton/CBC)A Winnipeg-based company is moving some of its newly acquired operations from the United States to Winnipeg.Duha Color Services makes colour sampling tools such as paint swatches.It recently acquired a competitor, Colwell Color Ltd., and plans to move equipment and operations from Colwell’s facility in Indiana to Winnipeg.Officials say the move will create 94 new jobs in the Manitoba capital and new training for 42 existing employees.The Manitoba and federal governments are contributing a combined $159,000 to help the company’s plans.Rick Duha, the company’s chief business officer, says the money will help the company integrate new technologies.Duha Color chief business officer Rick Duha and politicians including Manitoba Development Minister Jamie Moses, left, during an announcement event Wednesday. Duha said the provincial and federal funding will help the company integrate new technologies. (Jeff Stapleton/CBC)”We made a deliberate choice to bring these jobs home because we see Manitoba as a strategic advantage,” Duha said Wednesday.”Its combination of [a] skilled, hard-working talent pool, a business-friendly environment and more affordable cost structures allows us to remain globally competitive while continuing to invest in our people and our operations here at home.”‘Trade tensions haven’t helped’In an email to CBC News, Duha said the Indiana facility was shuttered in January, and that the company decided to move operations before the election of U.S. President Donald Trump.”Trade tensions haven’t helped, but in the end we have not changed our plan,” he said, adding that the U.S. still an important part of the company’s export strategy as the world’s largest economy. Duha says the company still has a warehouse operation in Lockport, N.Y., about 30 kilometres from the Rainbow Bridge border crossing.With files from Arturo Chang