Traditional Medicinals moves forward with $47M plant in Franklin County

While out for lunch Tuesday, Ronnie Thompson, chair of the Franklin County Board of Supervisors, was approached by a citizen.

“He said, ‘When y’all going to do something at that business park?’” Thompson recalled at the board’s Tuesday evening meeting. “And I said, ‘Soon. I hope.’ That was my answer.”

Board members Tuesday unanimously voted to finalize a performance agreement with California-based wellness tea company Traditional Medicinals, which plans to schedule groundbreaking soon on a $47 million herbal tea manufacturing and processing plant in Franklin County’s Summit View Business Park. The project is expected to create 57 jobs with an average annual salary of more than $70,657, according to Christopher Whitlow, county administrator.

A company famous for teas with names like Throat Coat and Cup of Calm and founded in Sebastopol, California, a town founded by hippies, Traditional Medicinals has flirted with the moonshine capital of the world before.

In early 2020, Traditional Medicinals announced plans to build an East Coast operation that then was expected to cost $29.7 million. The project got put on pause during the pandemic.

Company co-founder Drake Sadler apologized for the wait at the meeting.

“We’ve been taking our time with it,” he said. “And now, we’re ready, and we have committed, as you heard, a significant investment, and we’re going to grow here.”

Some footings will be constructed this year and construction on the Traditional Medicinal facility is expected to be completed in 2026, according to Whitlow.

Representatives from Interactive Design Group, a Roanoke architecture firm, and Parker Design Group, a Roanoke civil engineering firm, will help to build the company’s complex and stood at Tuesday’s meeting. Current Traditional Medicinals CEO Joe Stanziano and Gary Gatton, a previous CEO and current project manager for the Virginia site, also attended.

“I was so pleased that they’re using Franklin County resources, our Franklin County residents as architects, as engineers,” Whitlow said of Traditional Medicinals. “We just look forward to continue the good work and partnership as we break ground just in a matter of weeks.”

When Sadler addressed the meeting, he noted the invocation held at the beginning by Tommy Shepherd from Stuart Church of Living Water.

Traditional Medicinals, he said, also likes to begin their meetings with an invocation, which he described as “an invocation of gratitude.”

“We don’t take this work for granted,” he said. “We believe that we’ve been called to do this work. It’s important work. We feel like we’ve been called here to Franklin County.”

The members of the board were all smiles after the announcement Tuesday.

“This is for you, Buddy,” Thompson said in honor of the citizen who approached him at lunch. “It’s good news.”