Label designer, maker, Resource Label Group building new plant near Whitefish

Resource Label Group, a Tennessee-based company, is building a $4.5 million plant near Whitefish that is expected to employ 40 to 50 people within four years.

The company designs and prints custom adhesive labels for products such as shampoo, agricultural chemicals, automobiles and lunch boxes.

By Alan Choate
The Daily Inter Lake

http://www.dailyinterlake.com/NewsEngine/SelectStory_AD.tpl?command=search&db=news.db&eqskudata=7-814609-80

Construction is under way on the 16,000-square-foot building, and company President Don Farris said the printing machinery will be in place in about two months.

Farris, who has owned a home in the area for the past 2 1/2 years, said there have been obstacles to the expansion — Northwest Montana is remote and the expansion requires a significant investment in high-speed telecommunication lines.

The Flathead Valley’s available work force and the quality of life make up for the difficulty, he said.

"These people out here are so productive, so skilled, so well-educated — they’re making the whole thing worthwhile," he said.

The company did not receive tax breaks or incentives to expand here, although Flathead County did accelerate the paving of part of Garland Road to make the plant more accessible.

Resource Labels’ new plant is intended to serve customers in the Pacific Northwest who have been taking their label business outside the region.

"I underestimated the number of customers within a 300-mile radius," Farris said. "They are anxious to do business with us because we’re in the Northwest."

Liz Harris, who heads Jobs Now and the Flathead County Economic Development Authority, said she had been courting Resource Label for two years. Farris needed to be convinced that the area isn’t too far removed from telecom and shipping services, she said, and the project gained momentum once those concerns were addressed.

The new location promises to bring high-skill, high-wage jobs to the Flathead Valley, and it might make the area more attractive to other technology-intensive companies.

Harris said pay for local jobs at Resource Label Group is expected to start at $30,000 a year, with some sales jobs expected to pay in six figures.

"It’s what you call a ‘signature company’ — they do a boatload of marketing," Harris said. Now, whenever the company promotes itself, the materials will include the name ‘Whitefish, MT,’ and that can only help the state’s economic recruiting efforts.

Right now, Harris said, "Montana has absolutely no reputation as a place to do business. It’s not a bad reputation. It’s no reputation."

Resource Label Group, founded in 1990, presently employs 100 people at plants in Memphis and Franklin, Tenn. Farris said eight current employees will transfer to the Whitefish location to train the new workers.

Reporter Alan Choate may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at [email protected]