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Ashley Martin jobs safe

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ARLEE – The Arlee warehouse for health supplement company Ashley Martin Manufacturing will soon see one production line outsourced to Nevada, but a company official said the move is not expected to lead to layoffs. 

“We are growing very rapidly as a company and we have outstripped our capacity in Montana,” Director of Human Resources Colleen Boddy said. “We have more sales and more business coming in than we can adequately keep up with.” 

The company plans to move its gel line to Nevada, where the less humid, more stable climate is better suited for manufacturing the soft gels that encapsulate vitamins. Boddy said there may be job offers available if current staffers with special skill sets want to follow the line to Nevada, but no one will be forced to go. She said the company plans to repurpose the space for the gel line into some other useful element of production. 

Workers might have to learn a new task, but they will more than likely keep their jobs, Boddy added. 

Boddy said the company is very supportive of its employees, though most people in the community have no idea it exists. 

“We’re just here with a great staff doing great work and the community doesn’t necessarily understand it,” Boddy said. 

The company opened its Arlee branch with 20 employees in 2006, and began making powdered supplements. It received a $216,000 loan in Community Development Block Grant monies in 2007. At the time former Governor Brian Schweitzer said the funding would help strengthen the Arlee economy. 

The company grew by 11 employees from the grant, according to state documents. Another $371,000 in block grant monies were lent to the company in 2010 to create the gel line. Grant documents say between 20 and 30 jobs were created from those loan monies. 

Presently, 75 people work in the warehouse where business is booming. 

“We’re over capacity,” Boddy said. “We don’t have enough employees now. We’re definitely not losing work.” 

Ashley Martin Manufacturing is a wholly owned subsidy of Connecticut-based company Designs for Health. 

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