Vitamin-maker Solaray Inc. has signed a letter of intent to buy 12 acres in Mountain Green, and plans to move its headquarters there later this year.
Solaray, an Ogden-based subsidiary of Nutraseutical Corp. of Salt Lake City, would be the third largest employer in Morgan County.Solaray President Jeffrey Hinrichs said the parent company has made a deposit and signed the intent letter for 12 acres in the growing bedroom community 10 miles east of Ogden. The company also has an option to buy eight adjoining acres.
The deal could close within two weeks and Solaray plans to move 120 of its approximately 165 production and warehousing employees to the new site in November, Hinrichs said. The company eventually could employ 240 there.
The company plans to keep the marketing staff of 35 to 40 at its Ogden Industrial Park offices and will maintain its research lab at Weber State University, Hinrichs said.
This is the company's second attempt to move to Mountain Green. Opposition from neighbors thwarted Solaray's attempt to relocate to a nearby surplus school district site last summer. Weber County officials also tried to convince the maker of vitamin supplements to stay.
But the company still believes that the rural Morgan County setting is in keeping with its health-oriented corporate image, Hin-richs said.
"You can go up to Morgan County and you don't have the inversions and (you do have) the nice rural setting," he said.
Morgan County commissioners have rezoned the site for industrial use and have approved the sale of revenue bonds to finance the project. Nutraseutical will repay the bonds.
Cementmaker Holnam Inc. and Browning Arms Co. are the two other major employers in the county.