From converted laundry room to 33,000 square foot production facility

St. Francis Herb Farm opens its doors in Barry’s Bay

The new production facility for St. Francis Herb Farm (SFHF) was officially opened on Nov.10, and was celebrated with an Open House for the public three days later. During a tour of the building Paul Rivett-Carnac, SFHF President and CEO, said that his parents, Jeremy and Monique Rivett-Carnac, started the business in 1988 in a 6×8 foot converted laundry room. Fast forward 30 years and the new 33,000 square foot facility in Barry’s Bay brings all strands of the business (from processing and production, to research and development, to distribution and warehousing) under one roof for improved efficiency and less reliance on outside suppliers. Fifty people are currently employed by SFHF, and the expansion will eventually provide another dozen jobs in the community. Above: Paul Rivett-Carnac and Caitlin Rivett-Carnac (COO SFHF) outside the new facility, display a picture of the site when it was a Murrays lumber mill.

Rivett-Carnac guided members of the public through the building, entering via employees’ locker rooms and as might be expected in a facility that produces natural medicines, the importance of appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) was evident. He pointed out the epoxy floor that allows for ease of cleaning and handles high traffic well but said, “It’s a visual cue here. When you’re standing on green, that means you need to be gowned. If you step into the warehouse with a grey floor, you need to de-gown.”

He said all lighting was operated by motion sensors — standard practice not just for energy savings, but because it easier to clean walls without switches. He also pointed out the advanced HVAC system where the air pressure varies in different rooms, depending on the room’s purpose. He showed us a gowned room, saying, “When I break the seal (to demonstrate he held back the transparent flexible door seal) the air flow is going to go from a cleaner room into a warehousing room. So you have different air pressure determining the flow of air between the rooms [which] helps maintain the integrity of product and prevents contamination.”

The tour proceeded through areas dedicated to different elements of production:

• Research and development under direction of naturopath Dr. Terry Vanderheyden (Rivett-Carnac said SFHF aims for an environment of continuous improvement)
• Grinding herbs (imported from around the world, as well as Canadian sources. Typically herbs harvested in Quebec and Ontario arrive at SFHF within days.)
• Extraction room, using maceration and percolation methods.
• Incoming warehouse for bulk products
• Compounding room (Deep Immune is an example of a popular SFHF formula that is a mix of various single herb extracts)
• Offices, mechanical, electrical, loading dock, etc.
• Creams and salves production
• Packaging includes a label inventory room (Health Canada provides a natural product number for each of SFHF’s 150 products which must bear their stamp of approval, agreeing with the claim, dosage information, contraindication, risk information on its label)
• Packaging/filling (Assembly line system copes with 5,000 bottles a day)
• Capsule area (Capsules are filled, then bottled. SFHF aims to eventually make powdered extracts on-site from the mixtures extracted)
• Quarantine room (Throughout production, Quality Assurance (QA) has checkpoints at each stage. The quarantine room is for the final QA checkpoint to ensure correct labelling, and line up all testing. Each batch made is tested and validated for purity — typically for heavy metals and microbial contaminants – and all paperwork is checked)
• Distribution centre (Versatile area where staff hand-pick all customers’ orders – ranging in size from two or three items to several pallets for Loblaws. SFHF still ships to naturopaths across Canada, but the bulk of the business is now through health food stores, grocery chains, and online sales via their own website and, in the last year, Amazon. Rivett-Carnac said, “We are in a lot of different channels. It is hard to execute equally well in these very different pockets of customers but that’s part of the challenge and the opportunity.”

The facility operates a one-shift, 40-hour work week. About 45 of the employees are based in Barry’s Bay, and the remaining handful are in sales and marketing roles in the Toronto area. Additional processing equipment will be introduced, requiring more operators. Rivett-Carnac pointed out that a lot of staff have grown up with the business, acquiring additional qualifications and skills along the way.