VOLUME 13 NUMBER 15 ■ COLUMBIABUSINESSREPORT.COM
Part of the
OCTOBER 26-NOVEMBER 8, 2020 ■ $2.25
network
Village Idiot owners Kelly (left) and Brian Glynn are celebrating the Five Points flagship restaurant’s 30th anniversary amid the ongoing pandemic. (Photo/Melinda Waldrop)
Innovation at work ZVerse face shield wins national design award. Page 4
High court ruling S.C. Supreme Court: SAFE grants unconstitutional. Page 8
Timber!
75,000-square-foot building made with mass timber coming to BullStreet. Page 13
Benefits shakeout Pandemic could change employee health benefits picture in 2021. Page 18
INSIDE
Upfront................................. 2 SC Biz News Briefs................. 3 In Focus: The Insurance Cluster................................ 15 List: Employee Benefits Brokers............................... 16 At Work............................... 21 Viewpoint............................23
THIRTY AND COUNTING:
Village Idiot celebrates resiliency along with anniversary By Melinda Waldrop
A
mwaldrop@scbiznews.com
s anniversaries go, Brian and Kelly Glynn may not be having the big bash a 30-year milestone warrants, but like a lot of things in 2020, the husband-and-wife ownership team of the Village Idiot is making the best of it. The venerable area pizza parlor, with three Columbia locations, is celebrating the landmark anniversary of its flagship Five Points location amid a pandemic that closed its doors for six months. And while the COVID19 health crisis has changed the tenor of the party, it has only increased the Glynns’ appreciation for the community that has made it
possible. “We did not want it to go by without celebrating the fact that that’s a huge milestone,” Kelly Glynn said. “We have worked very hard since we took over ownership to have brand awareness in the community, to support the community. ... We want everyone to know that we’re thankful to be here.” Kelly was waitressing at the Village Idiot, opened in 1990, in 1994 when she met a cook who would become her husband. After working at the restaurant throughout school, the couple branched out into different areas of the hospitality sector but kept in touch with Village Idiot ownership. In 2003, a series of connections led them back to their beginnings, and they bought the place where their careers
Refined production
Lean Six Sigma training helps Nephron meet still-soaring demand. Page 21
and relationship started. “We had both been in the industry from the time that we could work,” said Kelly, a native of Alexandria, Va., and a graduate of the University of South Carolina, where she studied business and accounting. “It wasn’t a shock that we kind of came back to it.” Added Brian: “It was good fit. We knew the place. We knew it what it could go in its best times. We knew what it couldn’t do in its worst times. They had sold it to another guy in ‘95 and we bought it from him. We kind of knew little things that needed to be changed.” The business grew in 2009 with the opening of a Forest Drive location and again in 2015 See ANNIVERSARY, Page 10