Family-owned personal care company Mountaineer Brand has just expanded its best-selling WV Timber line of products into more than 3,500 Walmart stores. The move marks new territory for this all-natural grooming line. The Martinsburg, WV  company’s products have been sold in Meijer stores and online at places such as Amazon.com, Costco.com, Target.com, LuckyVitamin.comand Jet.com, but company officials are proud to see greater shelf presence than ever before with the big Bentonville-based box retailer.

“It is one of the most significant, yet every-day things I have ever experienced,” COO Meredith Young said about Mouontaineer's Walmart deal. “Significant because it is a great step for Mountaineer Brand; this really means something; it is an accomplishment!  Every-day because Mountaineer Brand is so much a part of who we are, it makes perfect sense to see our products nationally and especially in our hometown Walmart store. I can’t say it has changed the game, but there sure are a lot of new players now.”

In fact, there’s additional retail expansion on the way, as product will soon be stocked in Schnucks stores and in limited Neiman Marcus locations too. While there seems like a wide divide between the typical Neiman shopper and the average Walmart goer, Mountaineer contends its grooming products are suited for all.

“You may hear us say that our products are for the common man or for the everyday man, but do you know what that man looks like? I do. Sometimes he’s dressed in Armani and shops on Rodeo drive and sometimes he wears a uniform with a blue collar and shops at The Company Store. Either way, the only way his beard is going to look good is if he takes care of it. Our products do that and do it well, so it makes sense that they appeal to everyone,” said Young, who is the sister of the company’s founder.

Mountaineer’s WV Timber scented beard oil, beard balm, heavy duty beard balm, and beard wash, which feature a mild scent of cedar and fir needles, join a full suite of the company’s product and scent offerings, including beard, body, shaving, and family care that are available at walmart.com.

Like many personal care startups, Mountaineer was born when its founder Eric Young could not find a beard care product that was reasonably-priced and utilized all-natural, high-quality ingredients.  (Contemporaneously, Young’s personal experience of losing his mom and then his wife to cancer in 2009 strengthened his commitment to a natural and healthy lifestyle for him and his family.) Since it was founded in 2013, the company has moved into a 10,000-sq.ft. facility employing 48 full-time staff members.

The Mountaineer Brand product line started with the original beard care oils, balms, waxes and washes but has since added deodorants, body wash, shaving oils, balms and soaps. The company also sells the Granny Vicars’ Family Care line of infant care, lip balm, salves, rubs, and insect repellent products.

“We are proud to oversee every step of the process in our warehouse and even prouder to keep jobs in our hometown,” said Young, who told Happi that they want to keep close tabs on the process and as such have decided to work with a contract manufacturer.

“Our products are almost an extension of ourselves and it’s critical for us to be in tune with every step in their creation. To contract out would mean losing that personal connection that we like to maintain among ourselves, our products and our customers,” she said.
 
“There’s no way we are letting a product with our name and our brand on it go out our door that is anything less than ‘almost Heaven,’” Young said (a nod to some well-known John Denver lyrics about Mountaineer’s home state).

As this growing brand expands its retail presence, it continues to ponder future products.

“We are always looking for something new. The market changes so rapidly and we’re right there changing and growing with it. From our first product, all of our products come from real need. For example, our all-natural deodorant came from not only the need to eliminate the poison going on our bodies, but also to create an all-natural deodorant that actually worked. Mission complete,” Young said. “So, while I can’t exactly say what we have coming out…. I can say, “stay tuned’ and I think you will find that we won’t disappoint. We never do.”