Mattress industry highly competitive

By Mike Switzer

Published January 5, 2023 at 5:30 AM EST

The mattress market in this country is big business with more than 16 million mattresses sold each year at an estimated overall value of over $17 billion. For over 90 years, our next guest’s Upstate company has been a part of that industry. Mike Switzer interviews Jay Orders, CEO of Engineered Sleep Mattress Company in Greenville, 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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