Specialty Kitchen Business Heating Up

By Mike Switzer

Published January 21, 2016 at 5:05 AM EST

Specialty kitchens are becoming a fast-growing segment of the food products business. Many grocery stores have shelves stocked with locally made jams, relishes, soups, hot sauces, barbecue sauces. But are these small producers making money, and how hard is the work?

Mike Switzer interviews Pat Gallagher, co-owner of Vegetable Kingdom in Sheldon, SC.

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Mike Switzer

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.

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