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SC Commerce Continues "Premium" Growth

Bobby Hitt
Mike Switzer/SC Public Radio

According to "Area Development" magazine, our state consistently ranks as one of the top five states to do business in the nation.  Maybe that’s why new business and expansion announcements seem to be released by our commerce department almost weekly.

Mike Switzer interviews Bobby Hitt, South Carolina’s secretary of commerce.

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After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.