Entrepreneur Finds Fertile Ground in Nashville, TN, Region

Stony Creek Colors founder sees a bright future in Nashville Region.

By Erica Buehler on November 17, 2023

Stony Creek Colors

Sarah Bellos is the founder of Stony Creek Colors, the fastest-growing manufacturer of natural indigo globally. Based in Springfield, the company serves fashion brands as well as an artisan community of professional dyers.

Originally from New York, Bellos moved to Middle Tennessee because she liked the area and wanted to pursue her interest in sustainable agriculture. Compared to her home state, the region offered more affordable land, a necessity to launching her new business.  Ahead, find out how this entrepreneur found fertile ground in the Nashville, TN, Region.

Where did the concept for Stony Creek Colors come from?

I was working in a textile dye house selling dyed apparel and accessories, mostly to boutiques and lifestyle stores. Through that experience, we started noticing a lot of inquiries into dying fabrics for other emerging brands and realized the expertise in dying with plant-based color was increasingly sought-after.

In trying to service those other brands to diversify our own business, I recognized that the actual supply of the plants was being used in this modern, more industrial dye equipment, but the extracts themselves were not consistent or repeatable to be used industrially.

I left that business and launched Stony Creek to start from the ground up an agricultural value chain that delivered a more consistent dye in the textile industry, while also replacing chemical color with plant-based color.

Why choose Robertson County as your manufacturing base?

We’d been looking across other regions, but we found that Middle Tennessee was within good proximity of agricultural land as well as a metro area. It’s a great overlap of rural areas and the more technical and scientific talent we needed to be able to innovate, conduct research and develop. We were really fortunate to access some state grant funding to revitalize the factory we’re located in, which is an old tobacco warehouse.

Who do you work with for your plant supply?

In 2016, we started growing with farmers here in Tennessee as well as Southern Kentucky farmers who have grown tobacco or have transitioned out of tobacco growing.

The process involved transplanting crops, so it was good to have farmers used to that and used to having a higher-value crop. We really work to provide all the supporting infrastructure for them, from the seed or transplants to harvesting and processing technology and equipment.

Any announcements or expansions for 2023 and beyond?

We just recently secured an investor, Levi Strauss & Co., through our Series B2 funding round. It’s a big testament to the new technology that we’ve developed for bringing the crop to scale, and we’re conducting a geographic expansion to broaden the agricultural production region.