Vinyl Lacquer Production Facility Burns Down

“To all the wonderful customers. It is with great sadness we report the Apollo Masters manufacturing and storage facility had a devastating fire and suffered catastrophic damage. The best news is all of our employees are safe. We are uncertain of our future at this point and are evaluating options as we try to work through this difficult time. Thank you for all of the support over the years and the notes of encouragement and support we have received from you all.”

Apollo Masters

In devastating consequence to both the vinyl industry and the surrounding environment, the Apollo Masters manufacturing warehouse in Banning, California – burned down on Thursday, February 6th. The facility was used to manufacture an essential ingredient in vinyl production – lacquer used to fashion Lacquer Discs, aluminium disks which contain the grooves cut from the sound files – essentially, the vital step in the vinyl pressing process which ‘transfers music’ to the actual vinyl record itself.

Luckily, no employees were hurt in the blaze – however, the mass burning of vinyl is posing a dangerous environmental threat to the surrounding area. Vinyl contains the extremely toxic plastic called PVC, which contains carcinogenic chemicals. When manufactured, PVC releases toxic fumes and chemicals – and with the Apollo/Transco warehouse filled with the material, suffering an overwhelming blaze – the chemicals released into the air leaves the environment around the facility filled with toxic pollution, hazardous to human health.

Apollo Masters was one of only two lacquer processing facilities in the entire world, with the only one remaining being MDC in Japan. The destruction of this processing facility inevitably means a lot of strain is going to be placed on vinyl production throughout the world.