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Liquor Technology Distilling Success for SC Company

Mike Switzer
Mike Switzer

  Our next guest first appeared on this show a few years ago not long after they had launched their liquor technology business with a little help from SC Launch, the start-up venture funding arm of SCRA. Since then, they have made significant progress with the development of private label products for national retailers like Total Wine and Target, the development of an international bulk bourbon business; and the acquisition and renovation of a significant distillery in Kentucky capable of making 75,000 barrels of bourbon a year.

Mike Switzer interviews Earl Hewlett, CEO of Terressentia, based in North Charleston, SC.​​

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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.