With plans to double the company’s growth over the next three years, Mountain Meadow Herbs has asked Flathead County to apply on the company’s behalf for a low-interest loan to help finance “bigger and faster” production equipment.

Mountain Meadow Herbs is asking for a $200,000 loan through the Montana Department of Commerce’s Community Development Block Grant-Economic Development program. Those funds are limited to local governments, and businesses work with their local government entity — Flathead County in this case — to apply for the money.

The loan would be used for upgraded encapsulation equipment, Mountain Meadow Herbs Store Manager Ashley Schultz told the county commissioners during a public hearing Monday. 

The upgrade would enable the company to double its capsule production of herbal extracts and other natural products by next year.

Schultz said the company expects 15 percent growth annually over the next few years.

Mountain Meadow Herbs also plans to open The Mountain Cafe, a retail storefront called The Herbs Store, and a conference center this summer at its production plant along Montana 82, the cut-across highway between Somers and Bigfork. A botanical garden on part of the 10-acre site also is in the works for this summer.

The block-grant loan must be tied to job creation and Mountain Meadow Herbs expects the production upgrade to create eight jobs, according to Tina Oliphant, vice president of finance with Montana West Economic Development, which is assisting the company with the block grant process.

Oliphant told the commissioners that as economic development loans are repaid they’re funneled into Montana West’s revolving loan program to leverage even more lending power for local businesses.

“We believe in this program,” Oliphant said.

Mountain Meadow Herbs expanded to its current facility in 2012 and has continued to grow. The 23,000-square-foot building houses a call center, office space, a sterile federally approved production facility, laboratory and labeling areas, and a shipping room.

The company was founded by Kathy Garber in 2001 and was sold to David P. Amrein of Switzerland in 2008.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.