A vinyl record factory in planning for the Chiang Mai area of northern Thailand (site candidates include Lamphun and Lampang provinces). This repository is the source of truth for the project: planning documents and cost data today. As the factory takes shape it will also hold the data and software used to run it.

Team

Simona Meesaiyati, Project Lead
Alexander Grabowski, Technical Consultant

buildfor.life supports the project in a consulting capacity.

Vision: Full-Service Production

The goal is the complete vinyl production chain under one roof, from audio file to delivered record:

Mastering: audio mastering for vinyl
Lathe cutting: cutting the master disc
Silvering: metallizing the cut master
Stamper production: electroforming nickel stampers in-house
Pressing: extrusion and pressing of the finished records
Finishing: trimming, labels, shrink wrapping
Packaging: folded paper cartons (jackets and sleeves), produced in collaboration with local packaging manufacturers
Fulfillment: dropshipping directly to end customers on behalf of labels and artists, alongside conventional bulk delivery

In-house galvanics (steps 3 and 4) removes the dependency on overseas stamper suppliers, a common bottleneck for pressing plants, and shortens turnaround for clients. Partnering with local carton manufacturers keeps packaging sourcing close to the plant, in line with the local-sourcing preference for materials. The pressing line is documented in detail; equipment, partners, and budgets for the other steps are open planning items.

Project Status

Planning stage (as of mid-2026).

Industry outreach has been ongoing for several years: equipment vendors, material suppliers, and independent consultants.
Alexander and Simona will soon travel to Making Vinyl in Haarlem, Netherlands, to gather further insights from the pressing industry.
A collaboration with ResurRec is under discussion.

Planning Documents

The detail lives in dedicated documents:

Roadmap: next steps in dependency order, from the three current gates (market validation, BOI, land title check) through quotes, commitment, build, launch, and expansion
Pressing line equipment plan: the 50/50 automated/semi-automatic fleet strategy, the Newbilt system under evaluation (~USD 232k quoted scope), and site requirements
Vendor landscape: researched candidates for mastering and cutting (Agnew Analog), galvanics equipment (Plating Power / Digital Matrix), stamper preparation (Sibert), bridge stamper service (Stamper Discs), and automated presses (Pheenix Alpha)
Equipment needs and supplier map: the full needs list per production step with supplier tables and contacts
Sustainability: the solar installation (Deye inverters, 271 kWh Gobel Power battery stack), the zero contaminated water commitment, and the materials strategy
Worker safety: safety training, galvanics clean rooms and decontamination, PPE
Biomass fuel strategy: the 60 rai own-grown coppice idea (with the forestry-classification check that comes first), northern agricultural waste as the main supply, and the staged electric-to-biomass path
BOI investment promotion: the promotion strategy (Group B base activity plus solar, automation, and R&D measures for the tax value), requirements, Northern-region angle, and why BOI approval precedes machinery orders
Facility security and site systems: access control, CCTV, whole-factory HVAC (temperature, humidity, PM), archive and audio protection, fire and life safety, plant monitoring, Thai compliance anchors
Process logging and traceability: end-to-end per-order traceability for customers, batch genealogy from audio file to shipment, and the requirements this sets for the factory software
Quality automation: stamper metrology (Keyence-class confocal, profiler, XRF), layered pressed-record QC (100% optical inspection, per-cycle press telemetry, sampled automated audio comparison), and how it feeds traceability
Process flow: the whole chain from audio file to delivered record as a chart and stage table, with every check and the three artist approval gates (printable diagram alongside)
Production timeline: how long an order takes stage by stage, launch vs mature configuration, the repress fast path, and what lead time can honestly be quoted to a customer
Project timeline: the calendar from today to first paying release, the BOI-to-machinery critical path, and where the float actually sits
Project scale: rough numbers for everything on one page: output capacity, building area, land, electrical demand, solar and storage, steam and fuel, headcount, and money cross-references
Total investment: the full-vision roll-up (~4.7M to 8.9M USD) and the ~1.7M to 2.9M USD phased entry, with the basis of every block
Phase 1 construction RFQ: the spec sheet for asking a contractor to price the phase 1 buildings and site works, with quantities taken from the parametric BIM model
Revenue model: rough full-capacity revenue (~3.7M to 6.8M USD/yr), direct cost and margin per record, and the levers and caveats behind the numbers
Business plan: the investor-facing roll-up of everything above, built from docs/business-plan/build/ (run python build_plan.py to regenerate after the numbers move). Draft 0.1 carries the land-lease decision, the cassette and CD scope, and Ploy Printing as packaging partner and intended co-investor

Repository Layout

docs/
├── business-plan/
│   ├── CNX-Vinyl-Business-Plan.docx   Investor business plan (generated)
│   └── build/                 Python source of the plan; regenerate with
│                              build_plan.py
├── consulting/            Consultancy proposals and overviews
├── equipment/
│   ├── newbilt/           Offers, site requirements, process schematic,
│   │                      service rates (vendor PDFs)
│   └── pressing-line.md   Press fleet strategy and equipment plan
├── finance/               Project cost overviews, revenue model,
│                          construction RFQ
├── suppliers/             Supplier contacts, vendor landscape, supplier map
├── biomass.md             Biomass fuel strategy and the 60 rai coppice idea
├── boi.md                 BOI promotion strategy and requirements
├── facility-security.md   Security, HVAC, fire and life safety, compliance
├── process-flow.md        Audio file to delivered record, with all checks
├── production-timeline.md Order turnaround, stage by stage
├── project-timeline.md    Calendar to first paying release, critical path
├── quality-automation.md  Stamper metrology and layered record QC
├── roadmap.md             Next steps in dependency order
├── scale.md               Rough project sizing on one page
├── sustainability.md      Energy, water, materials commitments
├── traceability.md        Process logging and per-order traceability
└── worker-safety.md       Training, clean rooms, PPE

Vendor PDFs and spreadsheets are primary sources and reflect the state of negotiations at their file dates. Treat prices and lead times as snapshots, not commitments.

What This Repo Will Grow to Hold

Accumulate planning and vendor documents as decisions firm up, including the mastering, cutting, and galvanics chain
Add structured data (inventory, orders, production batches) once operations begin
Host the software/tooling built to run the factory (tracking, ERP-style workflows)