To say Spokane Valley-based Waterglider LLC has grown exponentially in the last 13 years might be an understatement.

The Journal last reported on Waterglider in 2011, when the company leased 4,000 square feet of warehouse space in the Spokane Business & Industrial Park, at 3808 N. Sullivan Road, in Spokane Valley, where it relocated from smaller industrial space on the West Plains.

At the time, the company’s flagship product was a meditation pillow filled with buckwheat husks, and McLauglin and his wife, Jayne, who co-owns the company and keeps its books, were Waterglider’s only employees.

Now, the company has 21 employees and sells 250 distinct products, mostly through online retailers such as Amazon.com Inc.

“This is our fourth warehouse within the industrial park,” says Sean McLaughlin, Waterglider founder and CEO. “We’ve grown from 4,000 square feet to 40,000 square feet.”

The Waterglider name is still best known for its line of meditation pillows and benches it produces under the brand name Waterglider International.

The buckwheat filler helps the pillows and cushions keep their shape, providing comfort during long meditation sessions. The pillows are listed on Amazon, starting at $25.

The company has expanded significantly, however, with sales growing fastest in its lines of herbal teas, spices, and cosmetic oils, which it produces under other brand names within the Waterglider umbrella. One if its brand names is J Mac Botanicals, which is a nod to Jayne McLaughlin and the couple’s daughter, Josie. Other in-house brands include Bolga Zaare, Magjo Naturals, and Refugee Bath Co.

Sean McLaughlin declines to disclose revenue, but says the company has seen consistent growth in internet-based sales. He says the company has been profitable with no outside investment, although pandemic-related supply chain issues had cut severely into margins in 2022.

“We really had a hard time at the end of COVID because our (supply) costs went through the roof,” he says.

For example, the company imports over 20 shipping containers of supplies per year, and during the pandemic, the shipping costs rose to $22,000 from $4,000 per container, he says.

To regain profit margins, Waterglider purchased a machine in 2022 to fill its own 4- to 16- ounce bottles with cosmetic oils that it buys by the barrel. It took over a year, however, to obtain components to label and shrink wrap the oils under its own brand names.

The machine has been fully operational since last summer.

“We’re actually going to be buying another one,” McLaughlin says. “That should be here in six months.”

The cosmetic oils range in retail price from $9 per 4-ounce bottle to $25 to $30 for a 16-ounce bottle.

The second machine will enable the company to mix oils in proprietary blends and fill bottles as small as a half-ounce in volume.

The company also has machines that make tea bags and package loose herbal teas.

“We are a certified organic facility,” he says. “We have our handling license, so we can manufacture the product with the U.S. Department of Agriculture organic logo.”

McLaughlin says the intent is to be a manufacturer of finished products rather than a reseller of outside brands, although he envisions becoming a contract manufacturer for other brands in the future.

“Now we are a full-on manufacturer, and we try to control as much of the supply chain as possible,” he says. “When you sell on Amazon or Walmart online, they take so much; you can’t control that.”

McLaughlin says most employees at the company are immigrant refugees, some of whom are from Burma, Sudan, Ukraine, and Burundi.

“We’re culturally very rich here,” he says. “My experiences with immigration personally and in business have been very good. I owe a lot to this community.”

In several cases, multiple family members work for Waterglider.

“I never have to advertise for people,” McLaughlin says.

McLaughlin was a teacher in Spokane Public Schools, when he founded Waterglider as a side gig in 2002.

“I realized that … online retail was probably going to be the future,” he says.

He chose the Waterglider name for the company because he was an avid kayaker. “I was hoping to find something to give me extra time in life so I could enjoy kayaking,” he says.

But his interest in growing the business soon overtook his passion for kayaking.

“A year after I started the business, I sold the boat,” he says. “I pivoted my life, and I quit teaching in 2004.”