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Succeeding in a Peachy Business

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Although Georgia is known as the peach state, South Carolina is actually the leading grower of peaches in the South.  During peak season, our next guest’s farm employs over 200 people and ships more than 30 varieties of peaches through the U.S. and Canada and consistently ranks as one of the Top 15 stone fruit growers nationally.

Mike Switzer interviews Jimmy Forrest, a fourth-generation farmer in Ridge Spring, SC, and he joins us now from his farm, Dixie Belle Peaches.

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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.