ELLSWORTH — Employees of a North Carolina company are all in for moving to Maine.
Desert Harvest, which makes aloe vera-derived health supplements, is in the process of buying a building in Ellsworth, where it plans to house its offices and retail shipping operations.
Employees voted to move to Maine after doctors told the company CEO that North Carolina’s hot, humid weather was bad for her husband’s health after battling cancer, the Bangor Daily News reported.
CEO Heather Florio is close with her 15 employees and they voted unanimously to move to Maine. A dozen will make the move. The company will have to hire two or three people in Maine to fill vacancies.
Desert Harvest was founded in Colorado in 1993 but moved from Colorado Springs after large forest fires in 2012 and 2013.
Desert Harvest got its start after it developed a concentrated aloe vera formula to help relieve chronic bladder pain, Florio said. It now also offers CBD, nutritional supplements, hand sanitizer and topical skincare products, all of which contain the aloe vera concentrate Florio’s parents developed.
The move northward is also attractive because the company is working with researchers at McGill University in Montreal to develop CBD pain-relief products. As part of that arrangement, Desert Harvest is looking to expand some of its operations to Saint John, New Brunswick, which is only a three-hour drive from Ellsworth, Florio said.
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