Dr. Marv Moose has known for more than a year that Ameri-Pac needed more space.

In a few months, the company will have it.

Ameri-Pac broke ground on a 20,000-square-foot expansion last week that will add manufacturing capacity and warehousing space to the company’s facility at 751 S. Fourth St. The addition will adjoin the existing Ameri-Pac and Ameri-Vet facilities.

Dr. Moose and his wife, Gwen, bought the building in 1985 and turned the aging brick structure into a home for a thriving company. Ameri-Pac completed its most recent expansion in January 2004. Three years later, Dr. Moose decided he needed to add on again.

“I wrote a memo to management on Jan. 15, 2007, saying, ‘I am deadly serious that we need to expand our production,’” Dr. Moose said. “It’s been a year’s worth of planning and getting our financing lined up so we don’t have to stress ourself.”

Ameri-Pac produces vitamins, feed additives and veterinary medicines for animal health companies in St. Joseph and others across the nation. The company currently has about 50 full-time employees with several more hired on a part-time basis. The expansion will add a few jobs, but the increased efficiency and added space hold more importance, Dr. Moose said.

“We are very cramped for getting production done and we’re working a lot of overtime,” he said. “It’s going to allow us to make bigger batches of products, and it’s going to allow newer technology and more efficiency.”

The company takes pride in its quality control. The extra space should make that process easier.

“Sight is the first sense of how things are going on,” Dr. Moose said. “We’ll have better lighting and more space, so that in itself will help.”

Construction workers will spend the upcoming weeks doing dirt work to prepare the site. Supplies for the concrete and steel structure are expected to arrive in about three weeks. The company hopes to finish construction in late summer or early fall, then move into the building in September or October.

Dr. Moose said it was important to him to use as many local workers as possible.

“It’s important to me to keep business in the community,” he said. “Over 90 percent of the contractors that we’re using are from St. Joseph.”

Agribusiness reporter Clinton Thomas can be reached at clintonthomas@npgco.com.