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LowCountry Company Turns Bottles Into Clothing

Mike Switzer
Mike Switzer

  The textile industry in South Carolina is certainly not what it once was, but it is still alive and is, in fact, growing.  And here's one example: our next guest's company has been manufacturing private label clothing for other companies for a while and just recently decided to launch their own brand with their first product, a men's golf shirt, made from recycled bottles.

Mike Switzer interviews Ken Marcoon, owner of Charleston Green Apparel in 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.