ROCKLAND — Loyal Biscuit Company, which has stores in Camden, Rockland, Belfast and Waterville, announced it had acquired the building at 408 Main Street in Rockland and intends to move its store and offices to that location. Its Rockland store is currently at 422 Main Street.

“We are looking forward to better parking and more space,” said business owner Heidi Neal. “It’s a three story building and right now there are no plans for the other floors. The second floor has some office space and I work out of my home right now, so we will use some of that space.”

Neal said the rest of the building is an empty shell and plans for it will be a long way off. For the store and the ground floor space, Neal said she is aiming for the end of March 2016 to make the move.

“We have some work to do in the space before we move,” she said. “We’re also short-handed right now, which means I’m working in the store a lot and that makes it hard to get things ready.”

Loyal Biscuit will maintain its self-serve dog wash at its new location.

“It is not that much bigger, but it is a different layout,” said Neal. “The fixtures we are using should give the feeling of a lot more space.”

In 2015 Neal was voted Maine Small Business Woman of the year.

Are there plans for more stores in the future?

“In the end I do want to keep growing,” she said. “But for right now, we are going to maintain the status quo. We have the four stores and until I can get the stores properly staffed there’s really no way I can put a lot of effort into more growth.”

Neal said she was looking for employees who are outgoing and friendly. She wants to hire those who want to help people and learn about pet nutrition. She said she wants them to not just answer questions, but be able to educate people, as well.

“The businesses are continuing to grow and we are moving to a bigger space, but we want to do it responsibly, too,” she said.

Loyal Biscuit’s new building formally housed the Reading Corner. Huston Tuttle Gallery currently occupies the other half of the ground floor and Neal said they intend to stay at that location.

Neal said when The Reading Corner closed last December they talked about moving up there, but didn’t want to rent from a building that was for sale.

“We really didn’t think it was something we would be able to do [acquire the building],” she said. “We were able to work with the Small Business Administration to get financing, which really helped. We couldn’t have done it without the SBA. It just worked out and fell into place.”