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SC jam entrepreneurs find support from ACRE

We’ve come to learn that while many companies closed during the pandemic, many also began. Our next guest is one such example. During the economic shutdown, she and her co-founder turned their hobby of jam-making into a growing enterprise with the help of a grant from the South Carolina Department of Agriculture’s Agribusiness Center for Research and Entrepreneurship, known as ACRE. Mike Switzer interviews Jessica Henry, co-founder of Sakhar Jams in Columbia, 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.