Jason Tollmann, vice president of operations at Herb Pharm, says the company has outgrown its space in Williams, which spurred its expansion into new facilities in Central Point.

Williams-based liquid herbal extracts provider Herb Pharm’s operations are growing much larger following the company’s expansion into Central Point with a 24,000-square-foot bottling and distribution facility.

With final touches to the property on Bierson Way set to wrap up in November, Herb Pharm’s primary purpose for extending into the Rogue Valley is to provide much-needed space due to its growing base of customers domestically, and soon internationally.

“Sales are up over 20%. We’re bursting at the seams and we need more space to grow,” said Daniel Marple, CEO of Herb Pharm. “This month, we’re starting to ship to Europe and launching in Norway and Sweden, and then into the United Kingdom and EU (European Union).”

The company’s 500-plus herbal products are carried in 4,000 stores across the United States, and with the launch into Europe, the Central Point facility will provide enough space for the growing demand.

“The biggest benefit we’re going to have is space,” said Jason Tollmann, vice president of operations at Herb Pharm. “Out in Williams, we’ve grown past our space capacity, and with that, you see a decrease in efficiency.”

“It’s frustrating for employees to move 100 things to get to one thing,” Tollmann added.

Beyond the extra storage space, planners selected the expansion property for its proximity to the Medford airport.

“In the spirit of limiting our carbon footprint, having something immediately adjacent to the airport and immediately adjacent to this facility makes the most sense,” Marple said.

The facility includes two buildings — each 12,000 square feet — with a break room, locker room, offices, customer service section, conference room and outdoor space included with the warehouse storage and bottling and shipping stations.

The property will be able to hold up to 1.4 million bottles and products, according to Tollmann.

Herb Pharm is in the midst of hiring employees at the facility, with the expansion expected to bring 50 to 55 new jobs to the Rogue Valley.

“As we grow, we want to bring more people into that and bring employment to the Medford and Jackson County areas,” Marple said. “And we want to support the Southern Oregon economy while we expand.”

The herbal liquid extracts provider has more than 200 employees.

As part of the expansion process, Herb Pharm received help and guidance from surrounding organizations and agencies in the Rogue Valley.

“We’ve worked very closely with SOREDI (Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development Inc.), and Colleen [Padilla] over there has been very helpful,” Tollmann said. “We worked very closely with the city of Medford, with their planning department, with the fire department and all of our key vendors.”

Originally started in 1979 by herbalists Ed Smith and Sara Katz, the founders formed Herb Pharm with the intention of providing high-quality herbal products using their knowledge in botany and traditional plant medicine.

Forty-four years later, the company is continuing Smith’s and Katz’s work with emphasis on environmentalism and sustainable growth.

“They were visionaries. They didn’t have money in mind, they had herbalism in mind,” Marple said of the founders. “They wanted to impact the health of their community through herbal medicine.”

Today, Herb Pharm has 255 acres of farmland in Williams and Grants Pass where it grows more than 75 species of herbs.

“We source a large part of our herbs domestically here within Williams and Grants Pass, but we also look globally for herbs,” Marple said. “There are some herbs that don’t grow well in this climate, or there are some herbs that are more indigenous to other areas.”

As a Regenerative Organic Certified brand, a key priority for Herb Pharm is environmental stewardship.

Regenerative Organic Certified companies are required to meet a collection of soil health, animal welfare and farmworker fairness standards in order to earn the tag, and Herb Pharm was the first herbal product provider in the world to obtain it, according to Marple.

“It’s not just putting a logo on a label, it’s about practices to support a sustainable living for farmers and practices put in action for soil heath and management of our land,” Marple said.

The company applies a variety of eco-friendly approaches to farming, manufacturing and shipping, such as a robust approach to soil and land management to preserve water and topsoil, avoiding pesticides to protect pollinators and preserving native trees like oak, Douglas fir and pine on its properties.

“It’s a growth-oriented company, but it’s also very firm in its roots in how we want to grow,” Tollmann said. “We want to invest in our employees, we want to invest in our buildings, and we want to do it the right way.”

Looking toward the future, Herb Pharm will expand its operations into mushrooms next year after purchasing a mushroom-growing company based in Washington state.

“We felt that it was appropriate to get into the mushroom space, but only if we could do so at the level of quality that Herb Pharm is known for,” Marple said. “It took us some time to find the right company to partner with, and now we’re working on that retail product launch.”

“Next year, we’ll be launching mushroom products, but we’re taking the right amount of time to get that right,” Marple added.

To learn more about Herb Pharm and its products, visit herb-pharm.com.