2021 SCBIZ 4 - Winter

WINTER 2021

Meeting the meat demand S.C. beef producers see potential for growth

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Table of

CONTENTS AGRICULTURE IN S.C. 20 State meat production industry could double in size with investment

30 Familiar, invasive Bradford pear trees blacklisted in S.C.

32 Charleston saltwater farm growing ‘stevia for salt’

Longtime state lawmaker Hugh Leatherman (second from left) died recently at the age of 90. See his obituary and reactions to his death on page. 6. (Photo/ Kim McManus)

SPECIAL SECTION WHICH 20 LARGE AND 20 SMALL COMPANIES IN S.C. HAD THE HIGHEST REVENUE GROWTH? FIND OUT IN THIS ISSUE OF SCBIZ.

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DEPARTMENTS 6 Upfront

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12 County Spotlight: Laurens

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About the Cover: Cattle stand in a field at a Pickens County farm. Meat producers in South Carolina see a lot of potential for growth if their industry can secure proper funding. See the story on page 20. (Photo/Molly Hulsey)

From the

Editor - Steve McDaniel smcdaniel@scbiznews.com • 843.849.3123 Associate Editor - Jim Tatum jtatum@scbiznews.com • 864.720.2269 LOWCOUNTRY NEWSROOM

EDITOR

Executive Editor - Andy Owens aowens@scbiznews.com • 843.849.3142

Dear Reader,

News Editor - Alexandra Ng ang@scbiznews.com • 843.849.3124

As we approach the end of 2021 and another year filled with pandemic-related upheavals, disruptions and general anxiety, supply chain issues are dominating much of the economic landscape. No industry has been spared in coping with this complex global issue of trying to get goods from factories to store shelves or customers’ homes.

South Carolina’s agriculture industry is vital to us all, not just economically in its role as the largest sector of our economy, but for the simple fact that it is part of a global system that meets the most basic need of a reliable, steady food supply.

Labor shortages, transportation bottlenecks, COVID-19 restrictions and disruptions have all contributed to make getting food on tables more problematic than it’s been in recent memory. Agriculture-related businesses are finding ways around the problems, but the ever-changing nature of the pandemic and its effects on the workforce makes solving those problems all the more challenging.

Steve McDaniel This issue of SCBIZ magazine highlights some of those problems Editor, facing the agriculture industry in our state, and, by extension, the SCBIZ Magazine world. One sector of that industry in S.C., meat production and processing, received a good deal of attention during the height of the pandemic as consumers found a lot of empty space in their local grocery store’s meat cases. We take a look at a report that details consumer behavior and the reasons for those shortages.

Also in this issue, we pay tribute to a longtime state lawmaker, Hugh Leatherman, and a prominent figure in our state’s economic community, Chuck Spangler. Both men leave a lasting legacy of service and commitment to South Carolina.

We also highlight the companies in our state that have achieved the highest revenue growth over the past year. The Roaring Twenties section gives a glimpse of each of the top 20 companies in large and small categories.

Our quarterly County Spotlight shines on Laurens County. With its mix of rural beauty, interstate access and convenient location between Columbia and Greenville, it’s an attractive location for business and offers an unhurried, easy-going quality of life.

And our annual S.C. Manufacturing Conference and Exposition just wrapped up in Greenville in early November, returning as an in-person event after a one-year move to online. A wrapup of the highlights and some photos of the festivities can be found inside.

As always, thank you for reading SCBIZ magazine and for being an active and important part of the Palmetto State’s dynamic economy.

Staff Writer - Teri Errico Griffis tgriffis@scbiznews.com • 843.849.3144 Research Specialist - Paige Hardy phardy@scbiznews.com • 843.849.3125 Web Editor - Rob Lyle rlyle@scbiznews.com • 843.849.3119 MIDLANDS NEWSROOM Editor - Melinda Waldrop mwaldrop@scbiznews.com • 803.726.7542 ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Senior Account Executive - Lucia Smith lsmith@scbiznews.com • 803.726.7547 UPSTATE NEWSROOM Editor - Ross Norton rnorton@scbiznews.com • 864.720.1222 Staff Writer - Molly Hulsey mhulsey@scbiznews.com • 864.720.1223 ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Senior Account Executive - Ryan Downing rdowning@scbiznews.com • 864.720.1221 Account Executive - Angie Hammond ahammond@scbiznews.com • 864.720.1974

South Carolina’s Media Engine for Economic Growth Group Publisher - Rick Jenkins rjenkins@scbiznews.com • 864.720.1224 Director of Advertising - Robert Reilly rreilly@scbiznews.com • 843.849.3107 Director of Business Development - Mark Wright mwright@scbiznews.com • 843.849.3143 Events Manager - Kim McManus kmcmanus@scbiznews.com • 843.849.3116 Events Account Executive - Melissa Tomberg mtomberg@scbiznews.com • 864.720.1220 Multimedia Advertising Executive - Amanda Alford aalford@bridgetowermedia.com • 843.849.3109 Accounting - Linda Burnette ar@bridgetowermedia.com •704.247.2900 SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES service@bridgetowermedia.com • 877.615.9536

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The S.C. Manufacturing Conference and Expo in Greenville returned to a live, inperson event for 2021 after a one-year move to online. (Photo/Molly Hulsey)

S.C. MANUFACTURING CONFERENCE EXHIBITS LABOR SHORTAGE SOLUTIONS

By Molly Hulsey

www.scbizmag.com

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mhulsey@scbiznews.com

t the first S.C. Manufacturing Conference and Expo to go live since 2019, workforce concerns loomed large, but they were far from being the elephant in the exhibit hall.

“The professionals that we’re churning are top notch and great workers,” said Rick Jenkins, event host and group publisher of SC Biz News. “We just need more of them, and in order to get more of them, we need to get more people interested in manufacturing.

And as I have said many times before, today’s manufacturing ain’t your daddy’s manufacturing.”

Jenkins reported that the event, held Nov. 10-12 at the Greenville Convention Center, received a solid turnout as all four events were sold out.

“The floor was buzzing. There were well

over 1,500 people on that floor at any given time,” he said. “People just wanted to get out, see each other and shake each others’ hands, have conversations and just do some networking that they haven’t done in two years.”

Especially networking that could bolster the state’s talent pipeline or ease the need for labor during record low levels of unemployment.

Columbia Southern University and Anderson University booths were nestled in between displays of industry leaders, while Greenville Technical College invited participants to try their hand at virtual welding. Staffing firms like Hire Dynamics and MAU lured prospects with a putt-putt course and the dazzle of toddler-sized marquee letters.

Manufacturers and software companies alike engaged visitors with tech solutions able to speed up the employee training process or skip the need for some positions altogether.

Greenville’s Gemba Systems demonstrated

how their digitization platform can use virtual reality to teach trainees how to repair a carburetor, while FANUC and other competitors flexed robotic arms at their booths.

And no matter what topic speakers broached, business leaders didn’t shy away from queries about finding talent to fuel future plans.

SCBIO’s new CEO, James Chapell, spoke on breaking down silos between and within industry, economic development and higher education and opening communication channels on the talent pipeline during his panel discussion on the state’s life science industry.

“There’s a little bit of translation that goes on,” he said.

During an interview with SCBIZtv, Upstate Alliance CEO John Lummus covered two workforce initiatives he has been heading up over the past few years: MoveUp and SkillUp.

MoveUp is a marketing campaign, launched in 2019, created to attract talent from outside the Upstate. The site featured a job board and information on the region’s quality of life. SkillUp was a later development — a very successful one, Lummus added — created in partnership with the state’s technical college system “As the pandemic hit and unemployment rates went up to 13% regionwide, we really started looking at how can we help people who have been unemployed and underemployed in our region,” he said. “So we started a subset of MoveUp called SkillUp, and what it does is it connects people looking for jobs with the training that they would need to get those jobs.”

Cynthia Davis, director of the S.C. Department of Commerce, shared with SCBIZtv that the department often receives complaints from manufacturers about workers leaving after lunchtime or not showing up for their shift.

“We know that we need more people to move into our state, because we have a fantastic training program here with our technical colleges,” she said, adding that the schools’ programs offered are already directly aligned with industry needs. “That’s not the issue. The issue is getting people into our state, into the programs.”

Davis often advises existing industries to plot out a workforce development strategy if they haven’t already.

“What are you doing specifically for those emerging workers?” she asked. “What are doing for your current workers to retain them and make your culture that employer of choice? And what are you doing to attract those transitioning workers that maybe are coming out of hospitality or a service industry that we can woo and recruit them on over to manufacturing.”

She dubs these questions “the trifold” of workforce development.

“And if companies aren’t doing that, they’re going to be at a loss,” she said.

The S.C. Manufacturing Conference and Expo in Greenville that wrapped up in early November featured luncheons with corporate executives and public officials, interviews with various stakeholders and vendor exhibits.

(Photos/Dana Sipper, Sipper Photography; middle photo/Molly Hulsey)

UPFRONT regional news | data

Economic development advocate, longtime state lawmaker and business owner Sen. Hugh Leatherman dies at age 90

By Teri Errico Griffis

S

tgriis@scbiznews.com

en. Hugh Leatherman, a business owner and South Carolina’s oldest-serving lawmaker, died Nov. 12 at the age of 90.

For decades, Leatherman has been a forceful proponent for the state’s economy, playing key roles in the advancement of the aerospace and logistics industries.

The Republican, who lived in Florence and served both Florence and Darlington counties, was considered to be one of the most influential financial and political leaders in the state, credited with facilitating large economic development deals such as Boeing Co. coming to South Carolina.

His name was synonymous with business, Commerce Department Secretary Harry M. Lightsey III said in a statement.

“In working with him over 20 years, his leadership and commitment to improving the quality of life for all South Carolinians never faltered,” Lightsey said.

“While we are saddened to lose such a strong economic development proponent,

Sen. Hugh Leatherman, who died Nov. 12, attended the opening of the Leatherman Terminal in North Charleston earlier this year. From left, S.C. Ports Authority President and CEO Jim Newsome, Leatherman, Jean Leatherman and Ports COO Barbara Melvin gathered outside the terminal in April for the opening. (Photo/ Kim McManus)

Section begins on

FAST FACTS | Agriculture in S.C.

Page 20

ECONOMIC IMPACT OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY (AGRIBUSINESS):

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$46.2 billion

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25,000

total revenue, the No. 1 sector in the state

Number of farms in S.C.

4.7 million

246,957

Acres of farmland in S.C.

Jobs supported Source: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture

UPFRONT www.scbizmag.com

businessman and statesman, the impact of his vision will carry forward.”

Leatherman was one of the longest-serving members of the South Carolina Senate, serving since his election on Jan. 4, 1981, until the day he died.

Leatherman was first elected as a Democrat in the 1980s, changing party affiliations in the 1990s. He also ran unsuccessfully for governor.

Shane Massey, majority leader for the S.C. Senate Republican Caucus, shared his condolences with Leatherman’s wife, Jean, and the rest of his family Friday Hugh Leatherman (center) receives a plaque commemorating the opening of the new Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal morning. in North Charleston in April. Leatherman died Nov. 12 at the age of 90. (Photo/Kim McManus) “With four decades of service in the South Carolina Another of his key achievements was appearances Leatherman made at the port, Senate, Sen. Leatherman — better known negotiating the deal that brought Boeing with Jean, his wife, Amy, his daughter, to many as Mr. Chairman — will have a to North Charleston in 2009, which thenand Lula, his granddaughter, standing by long legacy marked in every corner of the Commerce Secretary Bobby Hitt called the his side. state and mirrored through the Senate senator’s “crowning achievement.”

Condolences poured in for Leatherchambers for decades to come,” Massey Hitt said that South Carolina had lost man’s family throughout the weekend. said in a statement. “His warm smile, com- one of economic champions with LeatherS.C. Chamber of Commerce President mitment to the community, never-stop man’s death. and CEO Bob Morgan expressed his gratiwork ethic and resolute focus will forever “Sen. Leatherman’s leadership, passion tude for Leatherman’s service. be remembered.” for progress and business acumen will “From bolstering the port, to bringLeatherman was remembered durleave a lasting legacy across the state,” Hitt ing major companies to our state and the ing the Women in Manufacturing panel said in a statement. “South Carolina is a thousands of jobs that came with them, discussion Friday at the S.C. Manufacturbetter place because of Senator LeatherSen. Leatherman understood what it ing Conference and Expo in Greenville. man, and we thank him for his many years would take to help our state grow and Attendees shared a moment of silence in of public service.” thrive, and he dedicated his life to making his honor.

Leatherman’s economic development it happen,” Morgan said in a statement.

Gov. Henry McMaster said Leatherman legacy also will be remembered by SCPA Sending further sympathies to Leatherwas a “powerful force for the progress and terminal named in his honor. man’s family, South Carolina Chamber of prosperity of our people.”

Leatherman was a powerful proponent Commerce Chair Kim Wilkerson and S.C. “For over 50 years, Hugh Leatherfor building a new terminal at the Port of Department of Employment and Workman poured his life into our state and we Charleston and a driving force to securforce Dan Ellzey said the state suffered a are the better for it,” McMaster said in a ing support and funding. On April 12, the significant loss. statement. “He loved his work and kept his day the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal “Sen. Leatherman was a giant among word. He never quit. We will miss him.” opened, SCPA President and CEO Jim men and a leader for not only the Pee Dee, As part of Leatherman’s role controlNewsome said the project could not have but the entire state of South Carolina,” Elling the state budget, one of his biggest ac- been more aptly named. lzey said. “The impact of his commitment complishments was securing $300 million “We wouldn’t be here today, we to making our state a better place will be in state funding for the Charleston Harbor wouldn’t be doing this today if it wasn’t felt for generations to come.”

Deepening Project. Started in 2011, the for you. It’s as simple as that,” Newsome project is set to conclude next spring, said as Leatherman christened the termiReach Teri Errico Griffis at 843-849-3144. making Charleston the deepest harbor on nal. the East Coast.

The event was one of the last public

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UPFRONT

SCMEP president dies after bout with COVID-19

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By Ross Norton

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rnorton@scbiznews.com

huck Spangler, CEO and president of the South Carolina Manufacturing Extension Partnership, died Oct. 15 from complications of COVID-19 at a North Carolina hospital.

Carl Maynard Spangler III, a North Carolina native and resident of Greer, was 58 years old.

In his role at the helm of SCMEP, Spangler was a workhorse on what elected officials and economic developers call Team South Carolina — those public and private players who advance business in the state.

On that team, Spangler’s organization had a far-reaching impact fueled by its leader’s enthusiasm for the mission: “Helping South Carolina companies grow.”

And Palmetto State companies did grow.

An independent analysis put SCMEP’s economic impact on the state at $3 billion in 2020, according to the organization’s website. That included $2.5 billion in retained sales, $165 million in cost savings, $250 million in new investments and $90 million in new sales. SCMEP served 400 manufacturers, creating 641 jobs and retaining 6,458.

Beyond the numbers, according to some of the people who worked with him, Spangler was a big man with a servant’s heart and a deft touch, a leader who motivated his staff to serve a cause, to get results and to leave clients better off.

“Physically he was a brawny kind of guy, but it didn’t take you long to figure out that he had this hulking status, but that belied a very quiet, humble manner in which he carried himself and how he dealt with people,” said Susie Shannon, president and CEO of the S.C. Council on Competitiveness. “You know, some people talk — a lot — about how they care for business or industry, for companies, for people, but you really learn more about people in seeing what they actually do, and it was clear that Chuck cared about South Carolina companies, South Carolina companies, South Carolina companies. I mean his whole mission and his life’s work was around making companies more successful.”

Danny Johnson Jr., who rotated off

Chuck Spangler, CEO and president of the S.C. Manufacturing Extension Partnership, died Oct. 15 from COVID-19 complications. (Photo/File)

chairmanship of the SCMEP board of directors at about the same time Spangler contracted the coronavirus, said his friend’s death is “a tremendous loss for this state.”

“This is one that has weighed heavily on me because the thing about him that made him so different is that he treated everyone the same,” said Johnson, vice president of North Industrial Machine, headquartered in Hartsville. “It didn’t matter if he was dealing with BMW or if he was dealing with a little ol’ manufacturer with one or two employees. He wanted to help the big ones and the small ones. As long as you were in industry, he was there to advocate for you.”

Aside from his enthusiasm, Johnson said Spangler was simply very good at his work.

“He understood the way state government worked and federal government. He really knew how to navigate that stuff,” Johnson said. “I’ve never seen anybody that could navigate the system the way he could to really use the system in a way that benefitted so many people. He was a rare talent.”

Spangler, an alumnus of N.C. State University, said in his biography on the SCMEP website: “I believe that when your eyes and ears are open, you can learn something new every day.”

In his career, Spangler assisted and trained thousands of manufacturers around the country, helping improve their operations and financial performance, the website says.

In addition to his bachelor’s degree in textile management, Spangler was a Galliard Family Business adviser with a level one certification from the Galliard Family Business Advisor Institute. He had a Lean Manufacturing certification from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and a Theory of Constraints certification from the Moraine Group.

Survivors include his mother, three sons, and his wife of 37 years, Sabrina Gibson Spangler.

Reach Ross Norton at 864-720-1222.

By Melinda Waldrop

W

mwaldrop@scbiznews.com

The emergence of the delta variant of COVID-19 spurred a renewed wave of caution, Scott said, but not the total shutdown of March 2020.

“It wasn’t as drastic as the first time,” he said. “People said, ‘We know what we’re dealing with now.’ People can make their own decisions about whether it’s safe to go out or not.”

The university reopened McCutchen House, its on-campus full-service dining and hands-on restaurant training program, in September for the first time since March 2019. Instructor Chris Knezevich said that a demand for workers, along with an increase in emphasis on employee safety and wellbeing, has created an ideal environment for HRTM students.

“We tell our students right now that there’s actually never been a better

time to go into the industry,” he said. “We took that little hit for a while, (but now) there’s that labor shortage. It’s really an interesting time for them because they can go out into the industry and ask for higher salaries than they probably were able to before (or) negotiate extra time off.”

Robin DiPietro, director of the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management and director of the International Institute for Foodservice Research and Education, said sales volumes at many restaurants this summer approached pre-pandemic numbers.

“There were a lot of people that were out, like, ‘Oh, thank God.’ It’s like they just got freed,” she said. “They left their house and were so excited to go out and dine and enjoy some of the amenities that we hadn’t been able to enjoy. We definitely saw demand come back. The issue the past year has been the labor and lack of people coming

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hile the initial surge that lifted S.C.’s hospitality and tourism industry when businesses reopened after pandemic-related closures has abated somewhat, experts agree that reasons for optimism remain for the economic sector that brought a recordbreaking $28.3 billion to the state in 2020.

Scott Smith, associate professor and graduate program director at the University of South Carolina’s School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management, said that a combination of pent-up demand and shored-up finances drove record business at hotels and resorts when stricter quarantine measures were first lifted.

“The bottom dropped out at the very beginning, just really everyone was suffering, and then we started coming back,” Smith said. “Every month, it got progressively better. … Resorts that had laid off staff weren’t prepared. They cut staff and they didn’t plan for the comeback. When things bounced back in March, April and May, a lot of problems were because of staffing, and still are. That just made the resorts and the hotels that were prepared even better off.”

According to the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, Hotel Revenue Per Available Room, or RevPAR, for the week ending Oct. 23 was $80.92, up 67.3% from the same week in 2020 and up 9.9% from the same time in 2019. As of Oct. 23, year-to-date RevPAR was 73.7% above the same period in 2020 and 2.7% above the same time in 2019.

Hotel occupancy in South Carolina was at 64.6% for the week of Oct. 17-23, up 26.8% from 2020 and up 0.3% from 2019.

Year-to-date occupancy as of Oct. 23 was 32.4% above 2020 and 5.9% below 2019.

“What we’re seeing still is staffing shortages and supply chain shortages. That’s causing additional challenges,” Scott said.

“The demand is there. Is it back to what it was in March April and May? Not really, but it looks like it’s continuing to trend up.”

Dealing with delta

UPFRONT

Hospitality experts see better days ahead as industry recovers from pandemic disruptions

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UPFRONT

back to the industry.

“Many of the restaurants that you would enjoy seven days a week, 363 days a year are now having random closures or changing hours because of lack of staffing, which I’ve never seen in my life. … A lot of people from the industry left during the early days of the pandemic because they needed a paycheck, so they left and went to other places, and they’ve decided maybe they want to stay or they’re working at places now where they don’t have late-night hours or weekend hours. A lot of those people didn’t come back.”

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Labor, supply chain challenges

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The University of South Carolina has reopened the McCutchen House for on-campus dining and its restaurant training program. (Photo/University of South Carolina)

Long-simmering industry issues such as low pay and difficulty accessing sick days have risen to the surface, Smith said, which he believes is a positive longterm development.

“That’s always been the challenge out there, but it is really highlighted right now.

If you want your business to survive, you really are relying on your employees,” he said.

“There’s going to be an even greater emphasis on employee satisfaction now. It’s not always paying them more. Studies show it’s not so much pay. It’s extra time off when needed or educational reimbursement or just being a good boss, having some empathy.”

Supply chain delays are also affecting the restaurant industry, DiPietro said, with shortages in items such as chicken wings and glass sending prices soaring and curtailing product availability.

“It’s not only the issue of supply of products. There are products made but they’re sitting on ships not being able to be offloaded because we have a shortage of truck drivers and a shortage of people working the ships to get the containers,” she said.

“It’s a very interesting time, and scary in that we’ve got people who want to spend their money, but we don’t have the places that they can spend it as readily.”

Some industry changes necessitated by the pandemic are likely to become perma-

nent, DiPietro and Smith agree. Some hotels may never return to offering daily maid service, Smith said, instead bringing guests fresh towels upon request. Restaurant hours may continue to fluctuate for the foreseeable future, requiring patience and flexibility on the part of customers.

“If the sign says you’re open till 4:30, be open till 4:30. That’s good enough,” Smith said. “I just need you to be consistent and deliver the basics. … I’m more appreciative of good service now, and I let people know whereas in the past I might not have said anything. We were kind of complacent with good and great service, and now COVID has kind of snapped us back.”

While hospitality employers may be working harder to keep their employees, it remains to be seen whether staffing levels will rebound to pre-pandemic levels, DiPietro said.

“I don’t know if the industry has made all the changes they’ll need to, but I think we’re going to see some massive changes occurring with what are employers providing to employees,” she said. “How am I getting employees back to work? Do I need to increase my pay? We don’t need a mandated increase in minimum wage because supply and demand is taking care of that. I can go to Wendy’s now and make $12 or $13 an hour, but is that Wendy’s going to be open seven

days a week? I don’t know. It depends on whether they can find the staffing or not.”

For his part, Smith remains optimistic that the answer to that question is a resounding yes.

“I teach intro to hospitality management.

My wife and everyone I know calls me an optimist. Here’s what I tell my students: There has bever been a better time to get into the hotel and restaurant industry,” he said, pointing out that the pandemic has opened up management positions as those approaching retirement age make that move a bit faster as well as culled the ranks of those who were not as passionate about the industry to begin with.

Eighteen months ago, with the university moving to online classes, DiPietro was concerned for HRTM students entering a suddenly uncertain industry. She sees a less dire, if still uncertain, landscape ahead now.

“Anyone graduating in 2020, I was worried for,” she said. “Then when we came back in the fall of 2020, (and) in October or November, when the numbers started decreasing a little bit, demand started going up, and I realized this wasn’t going to be a long-term impact for our industry. Our industry is back to booming.”

Reach Melinda Waldrop at 803-726-7542.

UPFRONT

AGRIBUSINESS CONTINUES TO GROW IN SOUTH CAROLINA 2020 ECONOMIC IMPACT

$1,051,000,000

JOB CREATION

2,483

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SCAGRIBUSINESS.COM

CAPITAL INVESTMENT

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county spotlight

LAURENS

Birds-eye view of one of Laurens County’s biggest events, Squealin’ on the Square.

(Photos/Laurens County Economic Development Corp.)

COMING INTO ITS OWN

LAURENS COUNTY OFFERS CENTRAL LOCATION, QUALITY OF LIFE

By Jim Tatum

L

ong known as a desirable place to enjoy an easy-going quality of life, Laurens County is cementing a reputation as a go-to place for industry in South Carolina. With its strategic location in and

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ready access to all that Upstate South Carolina offers, coupled with a rich

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history, diverse and impactful education opportunities, and businessfriendly climate, Laurens County is taking a seat at South Carolina’s economic development table.

Credit that to the efforts of many people, notes Laurens County Council Chair Brown Patterson. For example, Laurens County has worked hard Special Advertising Section

Laurens County by the numbers

Population: 67,883 Median household

income: $47,000

Unemployment rate

: 4.5%

Source: U.S. Cens us Bureau

COUNTY SPOTLIGHT: LAURENS

to turn the extreme negative of the pandemic into an opportunity to not only plan ahead but ensure that all possible players and voices are on board and working together. This includes the county, municipalities,

school districts, Chamber of Commerce, and the Laurens County Economic Development Corporation, to name a few.

“During COVID, we started doing Zoom meetings and we worked hard

The Laurens Walmart Distribution Center, built in 1989, covers 1.8 million square feet and now employs over 850 workers.

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COUNTY SPOTLIGHT: LAURENS www.scbizmag.com

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to make sure everyone had a seat at the table,” Patterson said. “Since then, we have worked to keep doing that, to make sure everyone is on the same page — and it’s paying off.”

Indeed, among the companies that call Laurens County home include CCL Label, GE, Michelin, Milliken, Setterstix, Sterilite, Walmart Distribution, and ZF Transmissions. And more are in the works, say county economic development officials.

Laurens County boasts a number of economic development advantages, starting with a healthy and welcoming business climate.

Eric Pritchard, COO/President of Setterstix, said the company made the decision to relocate there after Special Advertising Section

Musgrove Mill Plantation offers a wide variety of recreational opportunites, including a popular 18hole golf course.

COUNTY SPOTLIGHT: LAURENS

One of several five-story tubes of plastic at the ISO Flex Packaging plant in Gray Court.

Located in the northwest corner of Laurens County, with access to Interstate 385. Geographic location near cities such as Greenville, Spartanburg and Columbia. We are located only 30 miles from the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport. doris.hamilton@townofgraycourt.sc.gov Special Advertising Section

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83 years in business in Western New York.

“We wanted to be closer to our paper source, and export logistics here are better. This setting creates greater opportunities for growth in the international market.”

But the fact that Laurens County really went the extra mile to see that Setterstix would come there was an important factor as well, he noted.

“Laurens County has been very helpful — they did everything they could to get us here, and that is greatly appreciated,” Pritchard said.

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COUNTY SPOTLIGHT: LAURENS www.scbizmag.com

With amenities such as interstate highway access and proximity to ports, airports and major metro areas such as Atlanta, Charlotte and Chattanooga, industries in Laurens County can easily access many markets in much less time.

Laurens County is home to seven quality industrial parks, with available shovel-ready sites and speculative buildings: Hunter Industrial Park, Clinton Corporate Park, Laurens County Professional Park, Owings Industrial Park, Woodfield Industrial Park, Clinton 26 Commerce Park, and the Connexial Center.

The county’s newest industrial park, the Connexial Center, boasts

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Top, kayaking on Lake Rabon. Opportunities for outdoor recreation abound in Laurens County. Above, Laurens County’s newest industrial park, the Connexial Center, which boasts more than 450 developable acres and a recently completed 150,000-square-foot speculative building.

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some 450 developable acres and a 150,000-square-foot speculative building.

Located less than 40 miles from Greenville, an hour to Columbia, two hours from Charlotte and three hours from Atlanta, Laurens County not only has access and proximity to major hubs and markets, it also is within a 45-minute drive for a workforce of some 578,000.

Workforce development is another important aspect of Laurens County’s economic development efforts, and one of the most important assets to the county’s workforce development is the Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CAM). A public-private partnership between Piedmont Technical College, the Piedmont Technical College Foundation, county and municipal governments, the LCDC and local industries, the CAM is a 28,000-square-foot training space that houses a variety of training programs, work space and other educational amenities designed especially to help the manufacturing workforce augment and improve their job skills and knowledge. In addition, PTC offers apprenticeship opportunities through local businesses and dual enrollment courses with Laurens County high schools.

Upstate South Carolina is a hot area for growth and Laurens County offers an affordable quality of life, so it’s not surprising to learn that between 2012 and 2015 Laurens County boasted the second highest growth rate in the nation. In 2020, despite the pandemic, more than $56 million in capital investment and more than 200 new jobs were announced. And in 2021, some 861 jobs and $307.4 million in capital investment has been announced thus far.

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COUNTY SPOTLIGHT: LAURENS www.scbizmag.com

Top, Laurens County boasts best-in-class rail service for a range of commodities. Right, Historic downtown Clinton is designated as a national historic place.

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Laurens County offers a slowerpaced, small town feel while at the same time being close to more urban amenities. Some 68,000 people call Laurens County home. There are three cities, Laurens (county seat), Clinton and Fountain Inn and four incorporated towns, Cross Hill, Gray Court, Ware Shoals and Waterloo. The cost of living is around 89 percent of the national average.

Laurens County offers a wide array of educational opportunies, from high-achieving public school districts to high-quality private and charter schools, from state of the art technical programs to college/ university opportunities. PTC offers many dual enrollment, apprentice, and technical training opportuniSpecial Advertising Section

COUNTY SPOTLIGHT: LAURENS

ties. In fact, one of Laurens County’s most important education and workforce efforts, the CAM, is one of PTC’s eight locations. The 28,000-square-foot training space, which opened in 2012, houses CNC, CMM, Welding and Mechatronics labs and classrooms, along with Providing Safe Drinking Water Providing flexible training space that local Excellent Customer Service Wastewater Treatment industry can use to collaborate with Supporting Economic Development Offering PTC. Recreational Opportunities Preparing for the Future Presbyterian College and the University of South Carolina-Laurens offer traditional two- and fouryear college level degree programs, attracting students from across the country and the world.

The mission of Laurens County Water & Laurens County is close to “big Sewer Commission is to ensure that our city” amenities, but also offers many customers are provided with a sustainable supply of safe, quality drinking water opportunities for shopping, recand to provide environmentally sound reation and leisure close to home. wastewater collection and treatment services.

Numerous county and municipal parks are conveniently located 864-682-3250 • 800-358-3445 • 3850 Highway 221 • Laurens, SC “LIKE” US Facebook.com/LCWSC www.LCWSC.com • throughout the county. The largely rural nature of the area guarantees some of the most beautiful scen- LCSWC-21.10.11-SC Biz Mag 4.625x4.625 Ad_FINAL.indd 1 ery in South Carolina, as well as a wide variety of outdoor activities, from boating at Lake Rabon or Lake Greenwood, fishing on the Enoree and Saluda rivers, golf at Musgrove Mill, or any of a number of festivals and events, such as the popular annual Squealin’ On The Square barbecue festival, held throughout the year within the county, there’s Whether a high school student wants to get a jumpstart on their bachelor’s something for everyone. degree, or work toward a career after But the most important factor, graduation, Piedmont Technical College Patterson noted, is the people. can help meet their educational goals. Plus, South Carolina residents taking at least 6 credit “This is a beautiful, wonderful hours in a semester (generally at least two classes), place to live — that goes without at their high school, on our campus, or online, will attend tuition-free. saying,” Patterson said. “I think newSEE WHAT’S OFFERED IN LAURENS COUNTY: comers just won’t find a friendlier, • Middle College more welcoming place — the people • Emergency Medical Technician who live here are just the best.”

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TRENDING: AGRICULTURE IN S.C. With state investment in local meat production facilities, Clemson’s agribusiness team believes small livestock farms, like the Pickens County property pictured here, will be able to better overcome barriers to the consumer market. (Photo/Molly Hulsey)

S.C. MEAT INDUSTRY COULD DOUBLE IN SIZE WITH INVESTMENT

By Molly Hulsey

mhulsey@scbiznews.com

www.scbizmag.com

C 20

lemson’s Agribusiness Program Team had a hunch the state’s meat processing industry wasn’t reaching its full potential long before COVID-19 bottlenecks were a glint in anyone’s eye.

“We have the land, we have the resources to be able to produce,” Nathan Smith, director of the agribusiness team, told SCBIZ when he was asked what the state brought to the locally grown meat market table. “We’re well-placed in terms of reaching a lot of big markets along the Atlantic coast, as well as South Carolina.”

Still, even before the pandemic, something was holding the industry back, so on Aug. 2020, Clemson’s team released a survey via the S.C. Cattlemen Association’s network of farmers.

“This was something that in particular, our lead on this study, Steve Richards, wanted to look at probably three years ago,” Smith said.

“There wasn’t as much interest and support in doing that study back then. Certainly with

the pandemic, as it began, that became a very timely issue.”

South Carolina’s top two meat processors, 388 livestock farmers and more than 1,000 consumers voiced their thoughts on the

“We have the land, we have the resources to be able to produce. We’re well-placed in terms of reaching a lot of big markets along the Atlantic coast, as well as South Carolina.”

— Nathan Smith, director of the Clemson Agribusiness Program Team

is figuring into the higher price: higher price of labor to attract workers,” he said. “That’s from the processors to the logistics to the retailers.”

The two plants surveyed reported that as the number of skilled butchers dwindles and most facility owners have reached or exceeded retirement age — as in most sectors right now — workforce numbers remain a major challenge.

Still, with modest capital investments, interviewed processors argued that plant capacities could grow by 50% or more.

Using information from the study, the S.C. Department of Agriculture has lobbied the General Assembly to allocate state COVID-19

recovery funds toward economic development incentives and industry-specific marketing, according to the agency.

Smith wasn’t sure how far these efforts had reached in the state house but reiterated that investing in existing facilities would be key to developing the industry, alongside a skilled labor force, beyond current limitations.

“We’ve got the supply and the interest from producers to double it, but it’s going to take capital investment and increasing the slaughter and processing capacities in the state,” he said.

TRENDING: AGRICULTURE IN S.C.

Reach Molly Hulsey at 864-720-1223

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industry supply chain, and it became clear that not only was Richard’s hunch right on, but that the state’s processing capacity crippled farmers’ ability to grow their businesses.

Close to two years out from the beginning of the pandemic, Smith, reports six-to-12month wait times for regional processors.

At least one plant, Anderson Frozen Foods, Inc., shuttered its doors during the pandemic for good. The state didn’t witness the mass slaughters triggered by plant closures as in other states, according to Smith, but farmers did have to hold on to their cattle longer over the past wo years.

“It increased their cost of holding the animals, obviously putting on bigger weight,” he said.

“But it hasn’t eased as far as the processing goes locally.”

In the study, 80% of the surveyed livestock producers claimed that regional processing capacity remains a major hurdle for expanding their business, while 60% called it their greatest barrier to growth.

With the limitations presented by regional processors, 35% percent of farmers surveyed use slaughter plants outside of South Carolina — generally in Texas and the Midwest, according to Smith. More than 93% of the surveyed farmers wanted federal legal changes enabling the shipping and sale of stateinspected meat products across state lines.

“Most consumers (58%) did not change their consumption of local meat due to COVID-19; 20% purchased more local meat and 20% purchased less,” Richards said in a news release. “In the follow-up questions, a significant portion of those who purchased less did so because the meat was sold out or unavailable.”

In 30% of reported cases, local meats were sold out during the fall of 2020.

Lack of availability of local meat prompted the majority of consumers curtail their purchase of beef and bacon at the local market or farm, according to the report.

An uptick in vegan and vegetarian consumer choices in 2020 and 2021 didn’t impact South Carolina meat demand, Smith said, and surveyed consumers were generally willing to pay between a 1% to 24% premium for local meat.

“Inflation is being driven by a lack of both enough workers and then the increased cost on the transportation, logistics and everything else

21

TRENDING: AGRICULTURE IN S.C. Spring Park Inn served as a stopping-off point for Swamp Rabbit Railroad passengers from 1852 until 1941. (Photo/Travelers Rest Historical Society)

LAND TRUST HOLDS POTENTIAL FOR PROJECTS LIKE TR COMMUNITY CENTER

By Molly Hulsey

www.scbizmag.com

L

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ike a lot of people in town, long-time Travelers Rest resident John Carroll didn’t know his hometown was named after the Victorian-era pad of a late neighbor.

At least until the Green Build executive took on the job of transforming her home back into an 1800s-era inn — and in the months ahead, a community center, museum and events venue on the Swamp Rabbit Trail. The project is one of myriad Upstate historical preservation and conservation projects kickstarted by the S.C. Conservation Bank, the mother of Greenville County’s newborn Historic and Natural Resources Trust.

Carroll regrets that he never had the chance to meet Nell Anderson Gibson, the last descendent of Robert Anderson, one of the men who brought the Swamp Rabbit Railroad to the town (and past his inn). But since Gibson put the property under a conservation easement before her death at 89, the contractor has acquainted himself with her home as Gibson’s ancestors knew it.

Mhulsey@scbiznews.com

“It was really just a bit of committee work and a lot of measuring,” Carroll said. Guidance also came from similar projects from the time period to use as a blueprint, as well as existing records, all overseen by the Greenville County Historic Preservation Commission.

When SCBIZ magazine first met Carroll, he was measuring a new column for the Spring Park Inn front porch that twinned tapered pillars featured in photos from the house’s stint as a stopping-off point for Swamp Rabbit Railroad passengers from 1852 until 1941.

Prior to that, the home was haven for Carolina elite seeking to escape the “heat and malaria” of the Lowcountry summers, according to Kyle Campell, owner of Preservation South — one of the organizations that made the 20-acre restoration project possible alongside the work of the Travelers Rest Historical Society, Upstate Forever and the S.C. Conservation Bank.

The exterior of the house is almost complete, Carroll said, with some work still underway on the inside. A finished home, barring decoration for the museum’s interpretive space, is expected

by the end of the year.

The 20 acres surrounding the home, many of them now leased to a driving range, were once a centralized park space for the town, according to Campbell. In accordance with Gibson’s wishes to give the traveler’s rest stop, well, back to Travelers Rest, plans are underway to transform the property back to its original use through fundraising and public-private efforts.

“We really think that it’s an exciting opportunity for the community to have this greenspace, the house and all of its history right there in the center of town,” Campbell said.

Trust and keep your powder dry It’s an opportunity that the founders of the Greenville County Historic and Natural Resources Trust hope to see more of as the new funding pool broadens over and launches its public committee meetings.

“Well-thought out, planned progress is good,” Doug Harper of Harper General Contractors told GSA Business Report. “It’s going to happen. You can’t stop progress. Let’s do it the right way and protect the special places

for

Work

TRENDING: AGRICULTURE IN S.C.

We’re Open Clarendon County, SC A member of the Green Build team prepares to saw a piece of OSB board to use in the reconstruction of the Spring Park Inn’s windows in late August. Now, the exterior is almost complete, says Green Build’s John Carroll. (Photo/Molly Hulsey)

commercial or residential development. This contract is permanent and is passed forward along with the deed when ownership changes.

Conservation easements carry with them tax incentives, but funding from the conservation banks, the Greenville County land trust or other sources help compensate the landowner for some of the value lost from the property’s appraised fair market value due to property-use restrictions. Possible property uses differ from property to property. Each easement is tailored for the situation, according to West.

virtual meetings

by phone & email

It takes a village As the Greenville County Historic and Natural Resources Trust ramps up to hold its first public board meeting in the months ahead, in late August, Harper, chair of the trust board, said it plans to launch its website in the even nearer future.

“We’re moving very fast, because the ordinance was passed in December,” he said.

“Then we had to go through the normal board process of interviews and then the council voted; the board was set. It all happened very quickly, and subsequently we had our first called meeting.”

Landowners and conservation entities will had a deadline in August, with two more in November and April to submit grant applications for their properties.

Reach Molly Hulsey at 864-720-1223

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as much as possible, so they are there for future generations, because once they’re developed, they’re gone forever. We need more trails and parks and open spaces.”

S.C. Conservation Bank Executive Director Raleigh West and Harper, the bank’s former chairman, have been mulling over how to do that in an ever-booming Upstate for years.

In 2020, their vision blossomed into reality when the Greenville County Council voted in December to create the land trust’s board, and despite some budget disappointments, plans for the trust clipped ahead into the new year.

Like at the state conservation bank, the funding will be used by land trusts such as Upstate Forever and Naturaland Trust to compensate landowners who sell their property to a conservation organization or, like Gibson, seek out local conservation organizations to put their property under a conservation easement.

“Which is basically a contract between a landowner and a land trust nonprofit or the government, but usually a nonprofit organization, like Upstate Forever here that’s pretty prominent, where they would donate a conservation easement to save interest in real estate,” West said.

Properties with natural ecosystems, open space, historical value or public access under a conservation easement can continue to be used by the landowner for farmland, as a homestead or other limited purposes, but, according to IRS tax law, cannot be sold off or divided for

23

TRENDING: AGRICULTURE IN S.C.

Started in 2015 with 18 animals, the Tatanka Bison Ranch herd now numbers more than 40.

(Photos/Kathy Widenhouse)

THE RETURN OF THE BISON

TATANKA BISON RANCH BRINGS NATIVE MAMMALS BACK TO SOUTH CAROLINA

www.scbizmag.com

W 24

hile traveling through the Carolinas shortly after his retirement, Fred Ilse noticed a herd of large, shaggy animals alongside the highway. He pulled off the road to investigate.

They were bison. Once teetering on the edge of extinction, bison are making a comeback.

The stately creatures had roamed the Carolinas in the wild until colonial times but are now raised on ranches.

Fred had just purchased a stunning but abandoned and overgrown 215-acre parcel of pastures and forests near York. It didn’t take long for him to connect the dots: he was

By Kathy Widenhouse fascinated with bison and he had a place to raise them.

“There’s no handbook on how to start a bison ranch,” Fred jokes, even though bison were named America’s national mammal in 2016. Nevertheless, he set about to learn how.

That was in 2015. Today Tatanka Bison Ranch boasts a herd of healthy bison, offers regular agri-tours, and is a regular supplier of 100% grass-fed bison meat for a handful of highly select vendors.

A bison ranch started from scratch A growing number of consumers are choosing bison for its great taste and nutritional

benefits rather than simply as a novelty meat.

Farmers are raising bison to supply that demand, but increasingly to help restore grasslands.

As Fred launched into his new venture, he added a third priority: education. From the very beginning, he envisioned Tatanka Bison Ranch would offer agri-tours so people can learn about bison and the grasslands that support them.

It took some work. The ranch’s rolling hills, though naturally exquisite, were badly overgrown. The facility needed infrastructure, too, from roads to water, fencing and electricity.

After a period of intense research and multiple

TRENDING: AGRICULTURE IN S.C.

MEET THE BISON Tatanka Bison Ranch welcomes visitors and groups by appointment. You can also purchase the ranch’s USDAinspected bison meat at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays.

Tatanka Bison Ranch 8088 Kays Drive York, SC 29745 Telephone: 704-860-2130 Web: www.tatankabison.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/ tatankabisonranch Instagram: www.instagram.com/ tatankabison

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visits to bison ranches across the country, Fred worked to reclaim the ranch’s pastures using no-till farming.

Now sustainable, the permanent pastures grow year-round. Seasonal pastures are used for grazing the ranch’s herd in rotation during the winter, spring and summer. They’re planted with several types of grass, including cereal rye, daikon radish, and two types of clover which are high in protein and return nitrogen to the soil to replenish nutrients.

“Healthy farmland means healthy bison — and healthy girls,” explains Fred.

By girls, he means female bison. Tatanka’s first calves were born on the ranch in 2016 and have been every year since — 15 calves in 2021 alone. Today, the herd is nearly 50 strong.

The main bull, Big Boy, weighs in at over 2,200 pounds and has fathered 60 calves. Like elephants, bison are matriarchal. The alpha cow welcomes each new calf into the herd, ensuring its acceptance.

“Bison love to wallow in the sand,” adds Fred. In the course of the pasture reclamation process, his workers discovered sand at five feet below the red clay surface. Large excavators pulled out piles of sand to create “bison sandboxes” on the pastures.

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TRENDING: AGRICULTURE IN S.C.

Top, owner Fred Ilse looks over his herd.

Below, Ilse and his wife, Dana Plikaytis.

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Round up the bison

26

Fred rotates the bison from pasture to pasture, following a strict schedule. “They graze in one pasture for two or three days and then move,” says Fred. “And they don’t return to that particular field for three weeks.”

The rotation means parasites who don’t survive beyond their 21-day reproduction cycle are less likely to reinfect Fred’s bison. Fewer parasites mean just one roundup a year.

Plenty of ranches must deworm bison two or even three times a year. Thanks to Fred’s healthy fields and strict grazing, Tatanka’s bison endure it just once, usually in very early spring.

Rounding up bison takes some ingenuity.

“Bison are not like cattle and cannot be corralled,” says Fred. “You cannot make a bison go where it doesn’t want it to go.”

But bison are curious, says Fred, and he uses that trait to his advantage. About five days before the round up, Fred allows the herd free access to the corral. It is a place they like to

rest and chew the cud when they are not out grazing.

The day before the round up, Fred locks them out of the corral. The bison wander around the edges, looking in. By the time the corral gate opens on Round Up Day, the herd walks right in. The approach reduces stress for

both the bison and their handlers.

It takes just a couple of hours for Fred and the team of 12 volunteers to guide each bison through an arrangement of gates in The Squeeze, a chute system for handling each bison for weighing, vaccination, pregnancy checks, and tagging.

Preservation and agritourism TRENDING: AGRICULTURE IN S.C. Fred and Dana demonstrate ‘The Squeeze.”

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Once the pasture reclamation was underway and the Tatanka herd consistently produced calves each year, Fred focused on his underlying goal: educating the next generation.

Agri-tours require meeting space. By 2019, Fred and ranch manager Wes Costner had completed the construction of the pole barn on the property’s high point, built from reclaimed wood. The ranch was a featured stop on the 2019 and 2021 South Carolina Ag + Art Tours, hosting nearly 900 guests. The visitors toured the ranch and enjoyed a full day festival with a food truck serving bison hot dogs and vendors who demonstrated weaving, blacksmithing, glassblowing, jewelry-making, Native American wood carving, pottery, beekeeping, and quilting.

Meanwhile, the ranch had set up partnerships with Rock Hill, Clover, and York school districts, along with Clemson University Cooperative Extension and 4H clubs in York and Chester, to offer educational programs for students as part of their social studies and science curriculums.

But the coronavirus pandemic put school tours on hold. Instead, during 2020, homeschool groups visited the ranch at a rate of two or three a week, coming from as far away as Mooresville, Weddington, and Belmont to learn about bison.

Fred and his team shuttled the students from pasture to pasture in their bison buggy wagon fielding questions like, “What does the word ‘Tatanka’ mean? (“bison bull” in Sioux) and “What’s the difference between a bison and a buffalo?” (bison are native to North America, while buffalo are native to Asia and Africa).

Tours became so popular that the ranch has now purchased a vehicle that seats 10 and allows the sides to roll up.

And while Fred is quick to explain he is not in the meat business, the ranch harvests two animals every couple of months simply to keep the herd to a manageable size and supply the increasing demand for healthy meat products from grass-fed animals.

Tatanka bison are processed at a USDAcertified facility near Asheboro, N.C. The average harvested bison weighs about 1000 pounds, yielding 400 pounds of meat and 135 pounds of bones. Fred sells the meat at Charlotte Regional Farmer’s Market on Saturdays and directly from the ranch by

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TRENDING: AGRICULTURE IN S.C.

appointment. Hides are donated to the local Catawba Indian reservation. Dana Plikaytis, Fred’s wife, arranges and hosts farm-to-table dinners in their visitors’ barn using local chefs and produce.

More bison in S.C. Fred continues to grow his knowledge of holistic management and bison raising by attending the National Bison Association conference in Denver, Colo., each year.

He sees himself “primarily as a grass and pasture farmer who happens to have bison.” Yet Fred also has a vision for expanding the bison industry in South Carolina. He is mentoring a group of young ranchers in Kershaw who have started their own bison ranch with young breeding animals that were born at Tatanka Bison Ranch.

“I love to share my dream with people who have an interest in the history of our great country and these amazing animals,” says Fred.

“I feel very blessed to be a custodian of these magnificent creatures.”

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Bison grazing in one of several rotated pastures.

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The front gate of the ranch.

Members of the Tatanka herd, now more than 40 strong.

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TRENDING: AGRICULTURE IN S.C.

The state of South Carolina will begin banning the sale of Bradford pear trees in 2024. (Photo/Provided)

FAMILIAR, INVASIVE BRADFORD PEARS BLACKLISTED IN SOUTH CAROLINA

By Molly Hulsey

www.scbizmag.com

I 30

t’s a familiar sight — and during the spring, a familiar smell — across Palmetto State parking lots and neighborhoods: the darling of post-war developers, the Bradford pear.

But as anyone with this pear on their property would know, the tree’s essence of rotting flesh is the least of its drawbacks.

The tree’s limbs appear to be the first to snap during a storm — often severing the tree in half. Some have thorns that slice anything from tractor tires to the skin of livestock. And to make matters worse, the offender, once considered sterile, is responsible for the spread of one of the most invasive species in the region, according to Clemson University.

Mhulsey@scbiznews.com

If pollen from any other Pyrus species gets into Bradford pear flowers, the trees can make viable seeds, which are then scattered across the landscape by birds and other animals.

“It has all the characteristics of a noxious weed,” David Coyle, assistant professor of Forest Health and Invasive Species at Clemson, said in a news release.

On Oct. 1, 2024, South Carolina will become

the second state in the country to ban the sale of the Bradford and a few of its relatives. In the meantime, Clemson will give away up to five healthy, native species in exchange for every five Bradford pears cut down through a series of bounty events.

While the ban on these plants will make them illegal to sell or trade within the state, it won’t be unlawful to own property planted

“It has all the characteristics of a noxious weed.”

— David Coyle, assistant professor at Clemson University on the decision to blacklist the Bradford pear tree in South Carolina.

TRENDING: AGRICULTURE IN S.C.

with Bradford Pears or any of its other Pyrus calleryana relatives, including the Aristocrat, Chanticleer or Cleveland Select pear trees.

“In regulating a plant that’s actively traded in the nursery industry that is known to be invasive, you have to start somewhere,” Long said in the release. “We believe that by listing these plants now and continuing to encourage citizens to remove what they have, we can, in time, eliminate them from the landscape and thereby eliminate their deleterious effects on the landscape and environment.”

The Oct. 1, 2024, deadline is for the annual nursery licensing renewal in the state and follows Ohio’s decision to ban the sale of the species on Jan. 1, 2023.

“That’s no short process,” Steven Long, the state’s plant regulatory official and chairman of the S.C. Invasive Species Advisory Committee, said in the release. “There are nurseries that have lots of money invested in Bradford pear crops because they had no idea that it was being made illegal. Without giving them some lead time, you’re going to cost folks a whole lot of money. That’s why we supported the threeyear grandfathering period.”

Gills Creek Watershed Association Executive Director Carmony Adler, an event sponsor

Above, City of Clemson horticulturist Tony Tidwell (right) bags a replacement tree for a local resident during a Bradford Pear Bounty event in Clemson.

At right, the pear has developed sharp thorns that can puncture tires. (Photos/Provided)

alongside Abacus, Grimball Cotterill, Sox and Freeman and Walmart, said the organization hopes the bounty will aid homeowners in improving the water quality in their backyards.

“Not only does this event allow residents to remove harmful invasive trees,” Alder said in the release. “But in an area that suffers as much from flooding as the Gills Creek Watershed does, replacing invasivse with native trees allows us to actually prevent erosion and thus

sedimentation of the creeks during these heavy rain events, since native trees have a deeper and more extensive root system than invasives.”

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TRENDING: AGRICULTURE IN S.C.

CHARLESTON INDOOR SALTWATER FARM GROWING ‘STEVIA FOR SALT’

Sea beans grow in one of Heron Farms’ indoor saltwater farms in Charleston. (Photo/Alexandria Ng)

By Alexandria Ng

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ang@scbiznews.com

he call came in with a three-day lead time — a client in Maryland had run out of product and needed 50% of their usual order delivered to them by 5 a.m.

Monday.

With no other way to fulfill this lastminute order, the small team of 12 at Heron Farms decided that one of them would have to make the nine-hour drive from Charleston to Baltimore with a refrigerated truck, loaded with the urgently requested cargo — sea beans.

Sea beans, a nutrient-packed succulent usually found in saltwater marshes, are seeing a growing demand as they gain recognition, especially in the retail and restaurant world.

Charleston-based Heron Farms, the world’s first indoor saltwater farm, is capitalizing on the cultivation of this plant, while combating the environmental impacts of seawater rise.

The highly salt-tolerant plant from which sea beans grow manages its natural environment by storing salt inside of its cells. This storage results in the vegetable’s bright, salty flavor.

Heron Farms wants to market this as a healthier salt alternative, as opposed to more than 90% of salts sold across the world that were found to contain microplastics, according to a 2018 study from the Environmental Science & Technology scientific journal. The highest levels were found in sea salts.

“We want to be like the stevia for salt,” said JB Joseph, COO of Heron Farms. “We want to produce a viable salt alternative, and since they aren’t able to absorb microplastics, they are the purest form of sea salt that you can get. They also have a ton of nutrients in them; they’re like a borderline superfood.”

According to Heron Farms’ March lab report based off lower salinity levels than which they’re currently using, a 100-gram sample contained 22.7 calories. Generally, sea beans contain high levels of iron and calcium, with more vitamin A than kale and more magnesium than avocados.

“It’s like plant-based salt; it’s healthier than table salt,” said Sam Norton, founder and CEO of Heron Farms. “Sea beans are a cousin of beets or spinach, and it shares a lot of their health properties.”

From ocean to dinner plate Norton grew up on Isle of Palms. He, like many others living in coastal South Carolina, recognized the growing issue of seawater intrusion and regional flooding.

“What motivates me is that seawater doesn’t just have to be a problem; it can be a resource,” Norton said. “The reason why this plant has been so widely funded and researched over the last decade is that we’re realizing that 90% of the saltwater on the planet is actually usable for agriculture if we domesticate these types of plants called halophytes.”

Heron Farms uses seawater with a salinity of 30 parts per 1,000 — a little less salty than the Atlantic Ocean. This water runs through the pipes of the automated indoor hydroponic system, an advantage that lets them control growing factors year-round, Norton said.

Plants are watered at the same time every day, imitating the tides, but on an expedited schedule. All seawater comes from Bull Bays Saltworks, from which Heron Farms picks up about 750 gallons each week.

“We’re taking ocean water, which you can’t

sold, Heron Farms will replant one square foot of salt marsh, which has decreased over the years because of dredging and coastal development.

Heron Farms’ salt marsh restoration occurs via a drone that flies over damaged land and drops seeds of the sea bean plant, one of few plants that can survive in overly salty areas and help bring life A team member washes out seedling racks. (Photo/Alexandria Ng) back into it.

Looking forward To maintain demand spikes in the past, Heron Farms has used the help of contract farms. Going forth, plans include expanding locations into the West Coast, as well as introducing more products once the sea bean has been perfected.

From a one-person operation to a team that’s raking in about 70 applications for open positions and growing in demand, Heron Farms has grown to a point where they expect to break even before the original

TRENDING: AGRICULTURE IN S.C.

drink, and repacking it into a healthy plantbased form,” Norton said. “It’s like biting into a little bit of healthy seawater.”

Given the indoor setting, Heron Farms also uses LED light fixtures that mimic optimal growing conditions to maximize yield. Salinity levels, types of seed and water cycles are still being adjusted to test germination rates, Norton noted. The sea beans have an average seven-week seed-to-harvest growth cycle, and the farm produces about a few thousand pounds per year, he said.

Restaurants in Charleston like The Obstinate Daughter, Jackrabbit Filly and 167 Raw have used sea beans on their menus, serving them as garnishes, sauces and flavorings.

Publix, Harris Teeter and Whole Foods have expressed interest in stocking sea beans on shelves, and produce delivery services like Blue Apron and Imperfect Foods have discussed including products in their boxes.

Heron Farms sells its 1-ounce package for about $2.59. Prices are in negotiation with these larger companies, Norton said.

The company has also partnered with Charleston kombucha company Dalai Sofia by adding the Heron Farms logo to its drink packaging. For every co-branded product

goal date.

“I’ve been doing research for four years, but we’ve only had a commercial-size farm since Thanksgiving, and it was early May that we were kind of growing and doing a little bit of selling, but mostly trying to do R&D quietly,” Norton said. “I think now, we’re more salesoriented and timely and ready for our next round of investment.”

Reach Alexandria Ng at 843-849-3124

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FEATURE STORY The Charleston School of Law was on the brink of closing or being sold to a for-profit company in 2013. Two years later, following lawsuits and pushback from students, faculty and alumni, Georgetown lawyer Ed Bell came in as president and bought into the school, putting it on a track to solvency. (Photo/File)

REINVESTMENT BRINGS CHARLESTON SCHOOL OF LAW BACK FROM THE BRINK www.scbizmag.com

By Teri Errico Griffis

34

D

ean Larry Cunningham was full of apologies after running a few minutes late to a meeting. A group of Charleston School of Law students had surprised him last-minute by dropping off a handful of handwritten thank you notes, expressing their appreciation to him for volunteering at a recent event.

The bubbly moment was a far cry from

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where the law school was nearly eight years earlier, on the brink of disaster and on its way to permanently shuttering. Back then, school administrators were far more likely to receive correspondence related to lawsuits than sentimental cards.

The hiccup in the school’s history began in 2013 when owners Robert Carr and George Kosko called an impromptu gathering of

faculty to inform them that that the school would either have to close or be sold to InfiLaw, a Florida-based for-profit company that owned three law schools considered so-called “diploma mills,” including Charlotte School of Law. The Charleston law school was only 10 years old at that time.

Devastated but determined students, alumni, and faculty pushed back — with two faculty

COMMITMENT. AGRICULTURE. COMMUNITY.

FEATURE STORY

members filing lawsuits — fearing that the sale would mar the school’s reputation and lower the standards of a Charleston School of Law education.

The turning point came in October 2015 when Ed Bell, a Georgetown trial lawyer, stepped in as president and bought into the school, alongside Carr and Kosko, to save it from the sale to InFiLaw. Bell’s agreed to manage the school, while Carr and Kosko serve as members of the board, until the school goes nonprofit and the former owners are bought out.

Since then, InfiLaw has gone out of business and all of its law schools are now closed, while Charleston School of Law years has clawed its way back from that brink of dissolution to record enrollments this fall.

“We predicted we would get here, but we didn’t predict we’d get here this quickly,” Bell said. “We came from a law school that was getting ready to go under to now a nationally ranked law school in six years, so that’s pretty good.”

Under Bell’s leadership, the school has transformed from a Washington Post headline reading “Charleston School of Law to close?” to increased job placement numbers, the highest South Carolina bar pass-rate in the school’s history at 87% and a student-centric model that invests money back into the education, rather than the pockets of its leaders, Bell said.

This fall, 611 students enrolled in the school, with 1,515 first-year applicants from 35 states — the largest matriculation to date. And job placements are just as strong with firms all over the metro Charleston area, and some as far as Ohio, seeking out CSOL students. One local firm currently employs 11 graduates from the law school.

“When you realize that a downturn like we had could have had a horrible adverse effect on our applications and admissions, I think we’ve been really fortunate,” Bell said. “It’s a testament to our faculty and our staff and our school. We have some good, strong bones.”

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Bell’s involvement with the school started years ago, when a CSOL student was temporarily staying with his family. When troubles arose later on, the woman and her now-husband, also a Charleston School of Law graduate, asked if Bell would be willing to step up and help save the school with a

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FEATURE STORY

group of others.

A couple months later, Bell asked who else had joined the effort and he learned he was still the only one.

“It just happened,” he said. “I can’t tell you.

I just felt compelled to do it. I couldn’t back down. I said, ‘You know, I’ll do the best I can,’ and I did.”

Over the years, Bell felt the best way to right the ship was to reinvest in the school, the facilities, the faculty and students.

While the school is still using a for-profit model, Bell has assured he has no interest in profiting from the school, and he thinks that is what has made the difference for CSOL. “If you have some money in the bank, do you take that as a profit or do you put it back in the school for the benefit of the students,” he said.

“Do you have a board that wants to get paid or do you have a board that wants to reinvest?”

Annually, Bell earns a salary of $1 and said he hasn’t taken a penny out of the school since he began in 2015. Comparatively, between 2010 and 2013, Carr, Kosko and the school’s three other co-founders — who have since left the institution — withdrew $25 million in profits from the school.

Bell, on the other hand, has put money into the school, settling a $6 million debt to InfiLaw. At the time of his arrival, the balance was $5 million, and Bell paid off the loan in 2017. He also settled two lawsuits recruited more faculty and updated the facilities to meet American Bar Association standards.

On his first day, Bell set a new tone by rehiring four teachers who had been let go

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“We came from a law school that was getting ready to go under to now a nationally ranked law school in six years, so that’s pretty good.”

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— Charleston School of Law president Ed Bell during the distress, most of whom are still there today.

The school has had some lean years, but Bell and Cunningham are committed to Bell’s goal of nonprofit status. The conversion process

Charleston School of Law Dean Larry Cunningham (left) and school president Ed Bell have guided the school through a turbulent period to its current stable, thriving state. (Photos/Provided)

should typically have only taken three years, but the road is complicated because the school must first generate the resources for the conversion, develop a reliable plan for the ABA, receive the ABA’s acquiescence to change in structure, and then receive approvals from the Department of Education, Internal Revenue Service and the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education.

Before the school reaches that status, Carr and Kosko will be bought out.

“We owe it to (the students) to give them an education that’s going to enable them to be successful,” Cunningham said. “I really view it as an ethical or moral imperative that we focus on students so much. And for them to be successful, they have to be able to engage with us.”

An entirely new culture David Estes, a third-year law student, hadn’t heard of CSOL’s history when he applied, but said his experience has been everything he’d hoped for in a law school because of the professors and their interaction with students on a personal level.

“There is still the respect of a student-teacher relationship, but it isn’t confined just to that,” Estes said. “If you want to ask about their career experience, or share your own personal goals, they are always happy to speak during office hours or work around your schedule.”

From his first tour of Charleston School of Law, Estes felt at home and today considers Cunningham family. The two forged a bond during the pandemic, working on initiatives engage students despite socially distanced protocols.

Cunningham worked outside of the scope of his role, Estes said, attending virtual social

events and judging contests that brought a glimmer of relief and joy to the mundane shutin days.

“We have some professors with amazing accolades that could really be doing anything else, practicing, but they have a passion for wanting to foster and create that next generation of legal leaders,” Estes said. “They want to be here, and I feel like they’re living out their passion that way by helping us.”

The school and its culture sell itself, Cunningham said, with small classes, faculty that has been rated by Princeton Review as one of the top 10 most accessible, and millions of dollars in scholarships.

For every student that is accepted to the school, Dean of Admissions Jacqueline Bell personally calls them to welcome them to the school. Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg writes a letter to every incoming student, welcoming them to the city.

“We’re able to say here are the improvements that we’re making in career services. Here’s how we’re going to help you get a job. Here’s how we’re going to help you pass the bar exam.

And here are the results that we’re seeing,” Cunningham said.

Bell’s passion for law is mirrored in his students, and his humility of working to earn their trust amidst a crumbling foundation is possibly what’s built the school back up again.

“It’s simple,” he said. “You tell people the truth. You tell them what you can do for them and how important they are to the school and treat them as such. It’s an old-fashioned way of doing business, but it works. It works.”

Reach Teri Errico Griffis at 843-849-3144

The Key to Navigating Wealth Management in Today’s World Claude Robinson, Senior Vice President | Hollis M. Gunn, Senior Vice President and Trust Advisor Regions Private Wealth Management Relationships matter. Especially when it comes to managing your money.

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That’s a relationship. That one of the reasons Regions Bank is different.

Prime Time for Wealth Management The demand for wealth management is on the rise. Consider the growth we have seen throughout Claude Robinson, the state. While Senior Vice President, challenges from Regions Private Wealth the pandemic perManagement Greenville sist, the business outlook is strong, and the housing market has been especially active.

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At the same time, we see a new trend of service developing toward younger clients who are thinking early about their financial futures. For example, there is the rise of new entrepreneurs, artists and social media influencers. They are building finances quickly and seeking advice to preserve and grow their wealth.

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Meeting the Demands of Today’s Complex Environment When you are a wealth management client at Regions, you are benefiting not only from the experience of our local teams, but also the guidance of leading-edge financial professionals whose deep market knowledge helps guide the portfolios we create for clients across the Southeast and beyond.

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This all combines to deliver a more intuitive and beneficial customer experience – and more value from your bank.

A More Holistic View It’s important to point out we don’t operate in silos. For example, wealth management is just one part of a client’s overall needs. Many are also business owners, consumer banking customers, and more.

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CONGRATULATIONS WINNERS! ROARING TWENTIES WINNERS: LARGE COMPANIES

T

he Roaring Twenties recognizes the 40 companies in South Carolina with the highest revenue growth: 20 small companies and 20 large companies. To qualify for Roaring Twenties consideration, companies had to be nominated by a third party or through self-nomination. Companies must have a physical presence in South Carolina and can be a for-profit entity or a nonprofit organization (except for government entities and charitable organizations, including 501(c)3 organizations, which are ineligible.) The nominated companies provided financial information to SC Biz News, which was sent to the accounting firm Cherry Bekaert for verification.

Company size was determined by gross revenue: small categorized as $10 million and under; large, more than $10 million. Small companies must have had revenues of at least $500,000 per year for 2018, 2019 and 2020. A formula was used that awarded points based on both dollar and percentage increases in revenue generated from South Carolina operations from years 2019-2020. Both of these criteria were used to create a score, with percent increase used as a tie-breaker if needed. The companies were then ranked by score, with the highest score representing the highest revenue growth.

All 40 companies were honored with a return to the annual live awards event in September in Columbia. The companies and their profiles are presented in this issue of SCBIZ. We hope you enjoy reading more about them.

Presented by:

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Sponsored by:

#R20SC 39

ROARING TWENTIES WINNERS: LARGE COMPANIES

1

Samet Corp.

Number of local employees: 39 Top local executive: Carson Knizevski Product or service: Construction/Real Estate Development Year founded locally: 2009 Brief company bio: Founded as a commercial construction company by Norman Samet in 1961, Samet Corp. has diversified into high-growth segments such as multi-family housing, education, health care, mission critical data centers and real estate development.

If you were giving advice to business owners or managers, what would be the three most important tips you would include?

Treat your internal team members as well as you treat your clients.

Lead by example — no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.

Be vulnerable and communicate openly and transparently with your team, let them in on the vision.

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Fun fact: This is the 60th anniversary of the founding of the company.

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20 Large Companies with Highest Revenue Growth

Creative Builders

Number of local employees: 78 Top local executive: Will McCauley Product or service: General Contractors Year founded locally: 1971 Brief company bio: Consistently delivering hands-on, qualityconscious work at a reasonable cost has helped Creative Builders celebrate 50 years in the business. Their highly diversified portfolio includes commercial, financial, medical, multi-family, light industrial and more, including new builds and renovations.

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth?

Consistency, communication, transparency and maintaining strong relationships with our clients, subcontractors, and co-workers.

Fun fact about the company: We also take the entire company striper fishing every year, some of our coworkers have caught their very first fish at this event.

4

Clear Touch Interactive

Brief company bio: Clear Touch designs interactive technology, including a range of panels, hardware and software solutions, that helps overcome challenges in education and business around the globe.

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth?

Clear Touch approaches its work with a disciplined effort behind creation and distribution of every product and service we offer.

We pride ourselves on our ability to improve and evolve interactive technology for education and business.

3

Harper General Contractors Inc.

Number of local employees: 256 Top local executive: David Wise Product or service: General Contractors Year founded locally: 1950 Brief company bio: Harper is a full-service general contracting and construction management firm that has been serving the Upstate for over 70 years with project capabilities up to $125 million. The company is headquartered in Greenville, with offices in Spartanburg and Conway, along with Asheville and Charlotte, N.C. What changes do you see ahead in your industry and how are you reacting to them?

Labor and material cost volatility due to Covid and other underlying market conditions will continue to have an impact on our industry in the near term, making projects more expensive to complete than even a year ago.

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ROARING TWENTIES WINNERS: LARGE COMPANIES

2

Atlantic Electric

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Number of local employees: 150 Top local executive: Lee Richardson Product or service: Electrical Contracting Year founded locally: 1969 What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth?

Our specialty niche in airfield lighting. We have significant competitive advantages in this area and have been able to capitalize on these advantages.

How has your personal approach to leadership changed as your company has grown?

I have come to realize that I’m in the people selection business; not the people “fixing” business. It’s far easier to find people who fit with our culture than to try to change people who don’t fit into the culture.

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ROARING TWENTIES WINNERS: LARGE COMPANIES

6

Number of local employees: 140 Top local executive: Kim Huckabee Product or service: Waste and Recycling Services Year founded locally: 2015 Brief company bio: Capital Waste Services offers professional and reliable residential trash collection, with commercial and industrial services. The company serves more than 24,000 homes and almost 2,000 businesses and government offices. It provides Front Load Containers, Roll Off Containers and Compactors to over 1,000 businesses and municipal sites all over the Midlands, and now serves Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties.

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth?

We a singularly focused on providing world-class service to our neighbors.

www.scbizmag.com

8

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Capital Waste Services

Logisticus Group

Top local executive: Will Stephan Product or service: Heavy Haul Logistics Year founded locally: 2012 Brief company bio: Logisticus Group is your supply chain partner with a full suite of services to help support successful project execution. They are experts in project cargo logistics, mitigating risk in your supply chain, and driving safety, quality and operational excellence.

If you were giving advice to business owners or managers, what would be the three most important tips?

We were fortunate to get some project wins early on, and so we didn’t really understand the value of recurring revenue until we were a few years in. But it’s been a crucial part of our growth for the past few years.

7

J Davis Inc.

Number of local employees: 142 Top local executive: Joel Davis Product or service: General Contracting, Industrial Services and Grading Year founded locally: 1997 Brief company bio: Starting out as a fencing and barn builder, Joel Davis founded his company in 1997 and their construction portfolio grew as light projects turned into heavier ones.

Following this, after seeing an opportunity to add value, heavy equipment was purchased, and in-house crews were established to perform grading and other services. After recognizing an industry need for safe and efficient facility and maintenance support, the company diversified to provide industrial services.

9

National Land Realty

Number of local employees: 16 Top local executive: Jason Walter Product or service: Real Estate Year founded locally: 2007 Brief company bio: National Land Realty offers the finest farm, ranch, plantation, timber and recreational land for sale across the United States.

What changes do you see ahead in your industry and how are you reacting to them?

Technology and data are the keys to our industry and we are extending our lead in this category every single day.

How has your personal approach to leadership changed as your company has grown?

I’ve really grown to appreciate a servant leadership approach.

11

Crescent Homes

Number of local employees: 115 Top local executive: Ted Terry Product or service: Residential Home Builder Year founded locally: 2009 Brief company bio: Crescent Homes was brought to life in 2009 by Ted Terry, a fifth-generation homebuilder with a vision and passion for designing homes and communities that evoke the charm of the Lowcountry. His vision for the company is to build thoughtful, livable and timeless homes, going beyond the standard, designing homes with features other builders view as upgrades.

If you were giving advice to business owners or managers, what would be the three most important tips?

Always keep the end user in mind — delivering exceptional customer service is vital to long term success. Be willing to evolve.

Assemble a dynamic team.

MedTrust Medical Transport

Number of local employees: 375 Top local executive: Lenna Macdonald Product or service: Private Ambulance/Mobile Healthcare Year founded locally: 2012 Brief company bio: MedTrust is a mobile healthcare provider with a business model focused on serving hospital-systems throughout the Southeast. Operating 24/7, 365 for ambulance services driven to become the ‘provider of choice’ in each area the company serves.

To support its goal of ‘Improving Patient Outcomes,’ MedTrust uses data-driven, innovative methodologies to ensure key performance metrics exceed industry standards and client expectations.

Fun fact: Our executive team’s interest and backgrounds include: harmonica and acapella music, opera, golf professional, offshore fishing and architecture.

ROARING TWENTIES WINNERS: LARGE COMPANIES

10

Hats off to Creative Builders, Inc. from your friends at McGriff.

Congratulations to Creative Builders Inc. on you well-deserved recognition as one of the Roaring Twenties, High Growth companies in South Carolina for 2021! We’re proud to be a trusted partner you rely on as you continue moving forward for many years to come. Your example enriches our community and inspires us all.

Marian C. Newman, CPCU, CIC, CPIW, AIS Account Executive 803-429-4055 | mnewman@mcgriff.com

© 2021 McGriff Insurance Services, Inc. All rights reserved. McGriff Insurance Services, Inc. is a subsidiary of Truist Insurance Holdings, Inc.

Mark W. Weeks • Robert L. Irvine, III • Joseph W. Kessinger 8086-B Rivers Ave. North Charleston, SC 29406 843-553-9800 | 1-800-55-7449

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ROARING TWENTIES WINNERS: LARGE COMPANIES

12

Number of local employees: 350 Top local executive: Greg Parker Product or service: Convenience Store/Food Service Year founded locally: 2008 Brief company bio: Parker’s has grown from a one-store operation in Midway, Ga., to an acclaimed 69-store company with state-ofthe-art convenience stores located throughout Georgia and South Carolina.

What changes do you see ahead in your industry and how are you reacting to them?

U.S. convenience retailing is undergoing a transformation because our traditional profit silos of “gas, cokes and smokes” are all under assault. We need to evolve and expand into other silos, like food service, providing customers with the freshest high-quality consumables they want.

www.scbizmag.com

14

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Parker’s Kitchen

Hire Dynamics

Number of local employees: 68 Top local executive: Laura Moody Product or service: Staffing Year founded locally: 2011 Brief company bio: Hire Dynamics was built with the mission to be the No. 1 staffing company that you would refer to a friend.

Specializing in contact centers, logistics, manufacturing operations, and office support services, the company has achieved a net promoter score three times the industry average for talent and nine times the industry average for clients.

What changes do you see ahead in your industry?

The staffing industry is ever changing, and the current economy and ongoing pandemic have required us to be more nimble than ever.

Hire Dynamics’ ability to shift, adjust and be flexible during this time has been a key factor in our growth success.

13

Sage Services Group

Number of local employees: 27 Top local executive: Joe Harper Product or service: Medical Device Sales and Service Year founded locally: 2006 Brief company bio: Sage Services Group began as a regional patient monitoring sales and service company in the Charleston area. As sales and service offerings grew so did the customer base. Today its national footprint of sales associates provides firstclass solutions for all patient monitoring needs. The four pillars of business include depot repair, replacement parts, refurbished equipment and patient cables.

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth?

Solid customer relationships and our ability to quickly respond to medical equipment needs for hospitals across the US from COVID-19.

15

Blue Haven Pools

Number of local employees: 32 Product or service: Design/New Construction/Renovations Year founded locally: 2005 Brief company bio: Blue Haven Pools of Charleston builds pools and provides supplies and maintenance services to the city and the entire Tri-County area. While locally owned, its national buying relationships benefits the area customers with great service and quality products at competitive prices.

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth?

The pandemic has caused a massive surge in the swimming pool business. People are noticing they won’t be traveling much so they are investing in their backyard.

ROARING TWENTIES WINNERS: LARGE COMPANIES

16

Armada Analytics

Number of local employees: 50 Top local executive: Mike Fissette Product or service: Commercial Real Estate and Due Diligence Services Year founded locally: 2006 Brief company bio: Armada Analytics is an independent provider of commercial real estate finance services. It offers commercial real estate underwriting, acquisition due diligence, asset management, zoning, loan closing and insurance review services. Established originally to underwrite agency and CMBS mortgage debt, it has underwritten $18 billion of transactions.

What changes do you see ahead in your industry?

As with many industries, the biggest changes I see in ours revolve around the technology, automation and artificial intelligence areas.

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With events like Women of Influence in the Upstate, Icons and Phenoms in the Midlands and Health Care Heroes in the Lowcountry, SC Biz News honors the movers and shakers across the state.

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ROARING TWENTIES WINNERS: LARGE COMPANIES

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Number of local employees: 24 Top local executive: Kyle Bevel Product or service: Recruitment, Automation, Consulting Year founded locally: 2014 Brief company bio: Founded in Wiesbaden, Germany, just before the Great Recession, JobImpulse opened its U.S. office in Greenville in 2013. An experienced international personnel services provider that can demonstrate a history of exceptional success, it maintains over 50 offices in 12 countries with more than 9,000 employees.

Fun fact: Job Impulse offers profit-sharing for the entire internal team.

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Job Impulse

Shelly Leeke Law Firm

Number of local employees: 85 Top local executive: Shelly Leeke Product or service: Law Firm Year founded locally: 2008 Brief company bio: Shelly Leeke Law Firm, with seven offices and 17 attorneys across the state, focuses on personal injury law, including work injuries; wrongful death; dog bite injuries; vehicle and pedestrian accidents; construction injuries; slip, trip and fall accidents; drunk driving victims and defective products.

How has your personal approach to leadership changed as your company has grown?

I have learned to build self-reliant teams that are led by exceptional supervisors and place more focus on communicating well.

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USI Insurance Services

Number of local employees: 57 Top local executive: Robb Imbus and Rion Shearer Product or service: Property and Casualty, Employee Benefits, Personal Risk and Retirement Consulting Year founded locally: 2017 Brief company bio: With roots dating back to 1867, USI provides property and casualty, employee benefit, personal risk and retirement insurance services. The company is approaching $2 billion in revenue with more than 8,000 associates in approximately 200 offices across the country, including in Mount Pleasant.

How has your personal approach to leadership changed as your company has grown?

One of the great things at USI and our leadership is that everyone is willing to be in the field with our team to help drive the most financially impactful risk management/benefit program for our clients.

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Knight’s Companies

Number of local employees: 300 Top local executive: Pete Knight Product or service: Septic, Precast Concrete, Ready-Mix Concrete, Concrete Pumping and Trucking Services Year founded locally: 1969 Brief company bio: Knight’s has grown under the watchful eye of Bud Knight from one man with a pump truck to four related businesses offering septic, concrete, and trucking services to customers throughout South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia.

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth?

First, we expanded our ready-mix operations to the Savannah market by building on the footprint we’d already placed there with Knight’s Precast. Second, the uncertainty of COVID at the beginning of the year created a backlog that then had us working at the same pace we would during the busier summer months.

ROARING TWENTIES WINNERS: SMALL COMPANIES

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Sonfast

Number of local employees: 13 Top local executive: Paul Pappy Product or service: Wholesale Fastener and Tool Distributor Year founded locally: 1979 Brief company bio: Paul Pappy, president of Sonfast, witnessed the growth of the company his father established 41 years ago. In 1979, Sonfast Corp. was founded as a fastener house in Travelers Rest. Today, we are one of the leading integrated supply solutions providers in the Upstate.

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth?

Empathetic service. We understand that everyone is fearful, times are “uncertain,” and that we’ve got to get through this together. Sonfast follows a business model of lifting burden off each other’s shoulders, which includes our customers and suppliers. Everything we sell as a result of our attitude toward service is just a bonus to building the strongest relationships in the community as possible. We added medical PPE to our distribution lines, met a ton of amazing people who needed and offered help. New customer additions and explosive growth with a few of our core accounts bolstered 350% revenue growth in 2020.

What changes do you see ahead in your industry and how are you reacting to them?

Global supply chain continues to be an issue. Rising material costs, limited material availability, logistical shortages and labor loss are all contributing to an environment where we have to be creative and innovate with the customer in mind.

20 Small Companies with Highest Revenue Growth

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ROARING TWENTIES WINNERS: SMALL COMPANIES

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Top local executive: Todd Hill, CEO and Janene Hill, EVP of Innovation Product or service: Health care software and technology Brief company bio: ClaimLogiq is a health care software and technology company that delivers a proactive approach to payment integrity through a powerful, simplified solution. The unique payerfacing, claim-analyzing solution makes claim reviews accessible to all size health care payers for in-depth insight and real-time access into the status of every claim at every stage of the audit lifecycle for controlled, consistent, accurate and defensible outcomes.

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ClaimLogiq

Havens Furniture

Number of local employees: 26 Top local executive: Angie Balderson Product or service: Furniture and Home Decor Year founded locally: 2016 Brief company bio: Haven’s Furniture carries new and custom furniture, overstocks, retail showroom floor samples, outdoor furniture, lighting and home decor.

The three Lowcountry locations are unique stores where you can find a variety of modern, coastal and contemporary furnishings.

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth?

Unfortunately, COVID has taken so many companies out of business.

Fortunately, for the furniture industry it has been quite the opposite.

COVID has forced many people to stay at home. As families work from home, kids school from home, spending so much time under one roof they are wanting to make their homes more livable.

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Floyd Lee Locums

Top local executive: Matt Floyd and Natasha Lee Product or service: Healthcare staffing Year founded locally: 2017 Brief company bio: Designed to be a boutique concierge experience, Floyd Lee Locums helps place physicians of all specialties and advanced practice providers like nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and nurse anesthetists in hospitals and health care facilities nationwide — as well as support the multiple staffing needs of those facilities.

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Catch Talent

Number of local employees: 11 Top local executive: Christina Lock Product or service: Technical Recruiting and Staffing Year founded locally: 2015 Brief company bio: Catch Talent is a high-touch recruiting agency that provides skilled candidates to growing technology, digital media and professional services companies. Headquartered in Charleston, it specializes in the full talent attraction life cycle by sourcing and recruiting qualified candidates who are interview-ready.

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth?

The primary driver for this year’s growth has been the focus on our contract-to-hire business in the public sector and health care vertical. Many organizations in the federal government and the Department of Defense utilize agencies like Catch to provide billable, hourly contractors to work on their projects.

Matt O’Neill Real Estate

Number of local employees: 74 Top local executive: Matt O’Neill Product or service: Real Estate Year founded locally: 2006 Brief company bio: Named by the Wall Street Journal as the No. 1 high-end real estate team in South Carolina, Matt O’Neill Real Estate has helped over 2,500 Charleston families sell their homes for over $1 billion. That success is based on Matt’s system, which he teaches to the agents he hires. They too, began experiencing success by helping clients sell their Charleston area homes quickly.

How has your personal approach to leadership changed as your company has grown?

My leadership approach is to create an atmosphere where all team members are not only supported on business strategies, but also supported on whole-life success.

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Stokes & Co.

Avtec Dental

Number of local employees: 5 Top local executive: Frank Avinger Product or service: Dental equipment sales and repair Year founded locally: 2001 Brief company bio: Avtec Dental offers the highest quality dental handpieces and 24-hour in-office handpiece repairs on all makes and models with 20 years of dental handpiece experience.

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth?

We changed our ecommerce platform to Shopify and began marketing aggressively online. Also, during the COVID-19 shutdowns we were very responsive to new and existing customers when the larger dental supply companies were not. Many new customers got comfortable with purchasing online while realizing that it can be faster and more cost efficient than going through traditional purchasing channels.

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The Cassina Group

Number of local employees: 45 Top local executives: Robertson Allen, Jimmy Dye, Owen Tyler Product or service: Real estate Year founded locally: 2006 Brief company bio: The Cassina Group offers the perfect mix of leading-edge technology and hands-on personal service for buyers and sellers. The team of experienced, full-time real estate agents is dedicated to finding you the perfect home or selling your existing home for the best price.

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth?

In a market where inventory is at historic lows and demand is high, The Cassina Group has continued to achieve strong sales figures by leveraging their impressive network. Nearly 20% of their transactions this year have been handled in-house, with no other brokerages involved.

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Number of local employees: 45 Top local executive: Stephen Stokes Product or service: Accounting Year founded locally: 1999 Brief company bio: Stokes & Co. has four locations across Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina, offering a variety of accounting, payroll and tax services to individuals and companies of all sizes and industries.

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth?

In 2020 we grew in a couple of main ways, one was through acquisition in that we acquired a couple of other accounting firms, and, two, we added services to help our existing and clients navigate the new government rules and regulations through the pandemic.

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ROARING TWENTIES WINNERS: SMALL COMPANIES

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ROARING TWENTIES WINNERS: SMALL COMPANIES

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Total number of local employees: 40 Top local executive: Paul Nichols Product or service: Countertops Year founded locally: 2015 Brief company bio: Upstate Granite Solutions provides rock solid service and superior products that make luxury affordable. Working with the belief that God is the finest craftsman there has ever been drives our effort to model craftsmanship after Him. What changes do you see ahead in your industry and how are you reacting to them?

As the industry has created new custom features such as materials, finishes, edges, corners, etc., we have adjusted our pricing and options. We have purchased new machinery for our new fabrication shop and with state-of-the-art laser saws and CNC machines that will allow us to work at a quicker and more precise manner.

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Upstate Granite Solutions

Accountfully

Top local executive: Brad Ebenhoeh Product or service: Outsourced Accounting Year founded locally: 2012 Brief company bio: Accountfully is the fully outsourced accounting team for emerging brands offering bookkeepers, accountants, CFOs, controllers and CPAs, and serving as a long-term strategic partner to help navigate complex financial challenges and opportunities.

How do you build your team?

We take a proactive approach to hiring for the most part. We are always recruiting and sharing a glimpse into Accountfully life, whether it is through employee and department spotlights, or sharing events and happenings on social media. We seek out people we think will jibe with our company culture, and have the skills to hit the ground running.

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6AM City

Number of local employees: 30 Top local executive: Ryan Johnston Product or service: Digital Media Year founded locally: 2016 Brief company bio: 6AM City was built to engage local communities by creating new ways to consume, participate and share local content. Through a conversational tone, editorial filter, and participatory approach, its digital publications aim to build the 24 communities in which it operates, including Charleston, Columbia and Greenville, driven by conversation, designed for maximum engagement.

Fun Fact: Our virtual bookclub, which we launched in 2020, has members from 11 cities who have read a total of 16 books (and counting). Our favorites so far? Lush neo-gothic thriller Verity is in the lead, followed by the charming comedy/mystery Anxious People.

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Swafford Warehousing

Number of local employees: 50 Top local executive: Van Swafford Product or service: Warehousing Plus Year founded locally: 1995 Brief company bio: Swafford Warehousing is an ISO certified logistics provider in Greer with over 20 years’ experience, 350,000 square feet of warehouse space, operating a Foreign Trade Zone and a fleet of bonded trucks.

How has your personal approach to leadership changed as your company has grown?

We realize that whatever gets measured gets managed. We have been very intentional over the past two years to develop and utilize data that helps us understand and better manage our business.

Drum Creative

Number of local employees: 10 Top local executive: Joe LaPenna Product or service: Website Design and Marketing Year founded locally: 2009 Brief company bio: Drum Creative was formed by two independent business owners who worked together on several national accounts, including Fruit of the Loom. The partnership was productive, and the two decided to form a new company, Drum Creative to help other companies “drum up” business.

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth?

Companies increasingly are seeing the importance of building a website and doing a better job of telling the visitor what they do and how their company can help solve their problem. Video has also made a great stride in the industry and companies are starting to see the value of that.

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DWG Consulting Engineers

Number of local employees: 33 Top local executive: Michael Weeks Product or service: Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Year founded locally: 1991 Brief company bio: DWG is a 100% employee-owned, Mount Pleasant-based consultancy made up of full-service skilled engineers and qualified support staff that excel at breaking the typical engineering stereotypes. We call ourselves consultants because we truly listen to our clients. Engineers tend to be binary, responding to input and measuring results. A consultant asks intelligent questions and utilizes industry-agnostic experience to provide partnership and guidance.

Fun Facts: We’re experts at chasing squirrels out of our office (think Clark W. Griswold in Christmas Vacation); we have “No Pants Fridays” and we have annual Pinewood Derby Races.

ROARING TWENTIES WINNERS: SMALL COMPANIES

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ROARING TWENTIES WINNERS: SMALL COMPANIES

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Number of local employees: 10 Top local executive: Andrew Muller Product or service: Property and Casualty Insurance Year founded locally: 1960 Brief company bio: Home, flood and auto insurance can be confusing and costly in coastal communities like Mount Pleasant, Charleston and Isle of Palms. Mappus helps people understand their insurance and save money in the process.

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth?

Honing the sales process to be different than our competition. We have a unique way we deliver insurance proposals (all through recorded videos, and yes, this was pre-COVID as well). By utilizing video proposals, we can scale by providing a more comprehensive summary in a shorter period of time. That allows our sales team to touch more opportunities and bring more clients in the door.

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Mappus

Kopis

Number of local employees: 50 Top local executive: Andrew Kurtz Product or service: Software & Technology Year founded locally: 1999 Brief company bio: We are the largest and most established custom software development firm in the region, and specialize in custom software development, business intelligence solutions, application development, DBA services and ERP solutions.

What changes do you see ahead in your industry?

The two biggest changes to our industry relate to security and cloud strategy. With the shift over the past year and a half to remote work, many companies have added new tools and software to their environments which means there are now more vulnerabilities and entry points to critical systems. We are focusing on helping businesses heavily secure their most confidential information.

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Big Red Box Coastal

Number of local employees: 12 Top local executive: Gantt Taylor Product or service: Waste management Year founded locally: 2016 Brief company bio: Big Red Box Coastal Dumpster rental is your resource for Dumpster rental in greater Charleston, offering 15-cubic-yard roll-off Dumpsters for the majority of residential-type projects and 30-cubic-yard roll-off Dumpsters more suited for our commercial and industrial customers.

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth?

This year’s revenue growth was centered around pivoting a large part of our business toward servicing homeowners who were doing projects during the pandemic rather than commercial construction or industrial waste. Our team really came together to help service a new type of clientele and the challenges that came with it.

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Broad Insights

Top local executive: Jim Wiginton Product or service: Business Coaching Brief company bio: Broad Insights helps business leaders get an objective, big-picture look at the state of their organization and offers down-to-earth advice on how to focus their energies. The business coaches at Broad Insights create action plans, help clients develop the skills they need, and provide accountability for making things happen.

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Number of local employees: 10 Top local executive: Blair Belk, Trey Lucy Product or service: Commercial Real Estate Brief company bio: World-class, full-service commercial real estate brokers who deliver results to commercial property owners, tenants and investors alike. With intimate knowledge of the markets in which they operate, combined with a tireless work ethic, Belk Lucy ensures that clients — whether landlords, tenants, buyers or sellers — receive the best possible representation or management in their real estate transaction.

ROARING TWENTIES WINNERS: SMALL COMPANIES

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S.C. DELIVERS

Ports, Logistics & Distribution

Two cranes arrive in early November at Columbus Street Terminal in Charleston after a two-month voyage from Shanghai aboard the Zhen Hua 35. (Photo/Teri Errico Griffis)

WANDO TERMINAL RECEIVES LAST ROUND OF UPDATED EQUIPMENT

By Teri Errico Griffis tgriffis@scbiznews.com

www.scbizmag.com

T 54

he set is complete. After seven years, Wando Welch Terminal in Mount Pleasant will now have 15 updated cranes after two more arrived from Shanghai.

The cranes docked in early November at Columbus Street Terminal in Charleston, where S.C. Ports Authority crew spent a few days dropping sea fasteners and other rigging that hold the booms

upright before the gear was moved under the Ravenel Bridge.

Since redesigns began for the terminal in 2014, four of the former cranes have been renovated and raised. The others have been replaced with the arrival of these final two.

“It’s our duty to be an economic engine for the state,” said Ed Stehmeyer, SCPA general manager and projects and design manager.

“As a part of that, we’re building the infrastructure needed to make sure we can handle the cargo demands in the future.”

The two new cranes cost nearly $11.5 million each. Coming in at 3.8 million pounds apiece, they have a lift height of 155 feet. The cranes are taller than the previous Wando set, but shorter than the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal cranes because they were designed years ago when the projected ships were

8100 Palmetto Commerce Pkwy North Charleston, SC 29405 terminal: 843-767-8693 | fax: 843-767-8893 www.cowboyusallc.com

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smaller than they are today, Stehmeyer said.

HLT cranes clock in at 169 feet.

“We’re obviously not done improving these facilities and whatnot, but like I said, we started this in 2014, and it takes time,” Stehmeyer said. “We’re projecting far out, and we’re trying to make sure we have timely infrastructure for what’s coming ahead.”

For Wando Welch Terminal, that’s getting the final two cranes operational. Once they arrive at the terminal, one berth will be shut down for a couple days while the parts are offloaded. The SCPA will need another four to five months to fully reassemble the equipment.

The SCPA is also looking into a wharf extension as part of a plan to use barges to transport cargo containers at Wando Welch Terminal to HLT. Wando currently has three parking spots for ships, but plans would extend the wharf 700 feet to make room for barges.

“Since you’re putting things on the barge and taking it to a facility, then putting it directly on a rail, we’re taking all that traffic off the road,” Stehmeyer said.

The ZPMC cranes arrived in Charleston after leaving Shanghai in mid-August.

Reach Teri Errico Griffis at 843-849-3144.

Infrastructure investments fortify SCPA’s capacity

By Alexandria Ng ang@scbiznews.com

The S.C. Ports Authority has been building momentum, investing in capacity, its cargo base and its efficiency over the past several years.

Though these developments in infrastructure came as part of the port’s overall plan for growth, this evolution has prepared the ports for today’s distribution and logistics climate following an unanticipated pandemic, said President and CEO Jim Newsome.

Today, the global supply chain is entering peak season and also scrambling to meet demands brought on by pressures from the pandemic. However, the SCPA is leaning on what it has accomplished already, paired with continuing to expand strategic investments to be able to take on even more, Newsome said in his 13th State of the Port address last month.

“We have worked together to cultivate a highly competitive, world-class port that continues to grow above the market,” Newsome said. “This past year has been one of my proudest as we have achieved major successes, including Walmart investing in a near-port import distribution center, our handling of record-breaking volumes during a global pandemic, and the opening of Leatherman Terminal, the first container terminal to open in the U.S. since 2009.”

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Capacity expansions

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Fiscal year 2021 and the first quarter of fiscal year 2022 saw records numbers for containers handled, especially as a shift in consumer spending during the pandemic brought an increase of retail imports coming into the country.

The $1 billion Phase One of Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal, opened in March, marked the first container terminal to open in the U.S. in more than a decade, as well as the only new container terminal capacity planned in the country until 2030.

“Companies with global supply chains want to be located near well-run ports,” Newsome said. “Port growth creates jobs and investments throughout the state.”

S.C. Ports generates a $63.4 billion annual economic impact and creates one in 10 jobs in the state.

Plans to develop a rail-served intermodal yard and an inner-harbor barge operation are also in works to alleviate cargo-moving processes and to reduce pressure on trucking capacity.

Of the $550 million needed for the two projects, $200 million was included in the 2021-2022 fiscal year budget by the S.C.

Legislature and Gov. Henry McMaster.

Even with all these plans in place to update the way that the ports function in the upcoming years, work must start now to keep up with the increased demand of the U.S. import supply chain, Newsome said.

“S.C. Ports must continue to deliver vital port infrastructure to meet the needs of customers and ensure a fluid supply chain,” Newsome said. “Strategic investments in port infrastructure are crucial to remain competitive as a port and as a state.”

S.C. DELIVERS

The terminal added 700,000 TEUs – an industry measure equivalent to 20-foot units – of capacity to the Port of Charleston.

“Capacity is the new port currency, and S.C. Ports has the right capacity at the right time to meet retailers’ needs to keep freight moving,” Newsome said. “We have invested more than $2 billion in recent years to enhance existing infrastructure and open a new container terminal.”

Following a complaint filed early this year with the National Labor Relations Board alleging unfair labor practices, the Leatherman Terminal wasn’t able to take on the capacity expected. Bringing this terminal to full operation within the next few years is among the port’s top priorities, Newsome said.

Once the Leatherman Terminal is fully built through three phases of construction, in addition to upgrades to Wando Welch Terminal, the container terminals will each be able to handle 2.4 million TEUs of annual throughput capacity.

The Lowcountry also saw growth in the Charleston Harbor Deepening Project, which is set to achieve a 52-foot depth in 2022, making the harbor the deepest on the East Coast.

Inland Port Greer is also on track to enhance cargo capacity and rail infrastructure in the Upstate.

Despite these successes, the industry can and must do continue to do better, Newsome said.

“There’s not enough supply chain to support record buyers,” Newsome said. “And I don’t forecast that it will balance back out anytime soon either.”

Reach Alexandria Ng at 843-849-3124.

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The U.S. import volume currently sits at about 2.5 million TEUs, with the nation consuming a record amount of goods.

However, only about 2 million TEUs worth of capacity is available nationwide to support all of the goods coming in and out, Newsome said.

Specific initiatives must be finalized to meet demand, Newsome said. These plans include a launch of SCPA’s own chassis pool in 2022, as well as an increased number of retail-focused transload facilities and distribution centers in the foreseeable future.

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S.C. DELIVERS

DISTRIBUTION

Chamber aims to foster Belgian tech hub in S.C.

By Molly Hulsey

www.scbizmag.com

mhulsey@scbiznews.com

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While almost all of South Carolina’s trading partners saw a dip in S.C. exports in 2020, those containers headed to Belgium — the fifth largest export partner based on value — were still going strong.

The European nation received about $1.4 billion in goods from the Palmetto State in 2020, according to data from the U.S. International Trade Database. A few years ago, Belgium surpassed the United Kingdom as an S.C. import partner and trails only Germany, Canada, China and Mexico.

And now, Yves Ghys, the newly appointed Belgian Chamber ambassador to the Southeast and head of Greenville’s Pozyx, says the pandemic has brought even more active interest from Belgian companies.

Ghys said he and the chamber team have already launched negotiations with several Belgian companies planning to announce a new presence in the coming months.

These new arrivals will join some of the largest employers in the region that happen to be Belgian-owned: AGFA Healthcare Corp., Solvay Carbon Fibers and Composite Materials and TVH Parts Co., according to Commerce Department data.

“We are trying to build a solid base for a Greenville technology hub,” Ghys said. “And even more, a Belgian technology hub. We are currently talking at all levels, including the Pozyx board members and investors, since they have stakes and investments in several Belgian companies that are planning to come to the U.S. in the near future.”

Ghys, whose global positioning company moved to the Upstate to be near its partner company, Gemba Systems, sees added value in having companies with the same investors close by.

“Think about it, with the creation of such a technology hub, specific functions like HR or finance could even be shared,” he said.

S.C. Ports Authority makes CEO history with Melvin to take over for Newsome

By Teri Errico Griffis tgriffis@scbiznews.com

After 13 years, Jim Newsome will be stepping down as CEO and President of the S.C. Ports Authority, and COO Barbara Melvin, will step in to the role making history as not only the first female CEO of SCPA, but of a top 10 U.S. operating container port.

The announcement came at the 2021 State of the Ports on Oct. 18 after the board unanimously approved the leadership change earlier in the day. Melvin, who has served with the port for 24 years, will transition as the sixth leader on July 1, following Newsome’s anticipated retirement in June 30.

“Jim Newsome has truly made a significant and lasting impact on South Carolina’s economy and supply chain,” S.C. Ports Board Chairman Bill Stern said. “He led a major turnaround effort of S.C. Ports when he joined in 2009, assuring S.C. Ports continues to flourish as a top 10 U.S. container port. Under his great leadership, we have seen significant growth at the port and at port-dependent businesses around the state.”

Newsome, who was inducted into the International Maritime Hall of Fame on Oct. 5, said it has been an honor to serve as the CEO of South Carolina’s major port, and he will continue to serve as an executive adviser.

“We have worked together to cultivate a highly competitive, world-class port that continues to grow above the market,” Newsome said. “This past year has been one of my proudest as we have achieved major successes, including Walmart investing in a near-port import distribution center, our handling of record-breaking volumes during a global pandemic, and the opening of Leatherman Terminal, the first container terminal to open in the U.S. since 2009.”

During Newsome’s tenure, he has grown the port’s cargo base, led the doubling of cargo volumes over a decade and key infrastructure projects, in particular the Charleston Harbor Deepening Project that will allow easy access to some of the largest ships traveling the East Coast.

Throughout her tenure with the SCPA, Melvin has served in a number of roles since

S.C. Ports Authority CEO Jim Newsome plans to step down from his leadership position next year. (Photo/Provided)

1998, including as senior vice president of operations and terminals in 2015 and COO in 2018. In her current role, Melvin oversees daily operations and major infrastructure projects.

“I am grateful and I am ready,” Melvin said.

“With the guidance of our Board, the skill and talent of our team, the solid experience within our maritime community, and the support of elected, business and community leaders, S.C. Ports will achieve enhanced growth benefitting the state, region and nation. To our customers, we thank you, and please know that with additional opportunity, we will earn prosperity together.”

With the opening of the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal, the Charleston Harbor Deepening almost complete and the announcement her new role, Melvin has had a memorable 2021.

In March, she was even named the Woman of the Year by the S.C. Manufacturers Alliance.

As one of the only women serving as COO of a U.S. port, Melvin said at the time it was one of the most emotional awards of her career.

The future CEO saw the recognition not only as an earned award, but as a calling to encourage more women into the fields of transportation, engineering and manufacturing.

“I am looking forward to the day when there are not awards recognizing women in their field because it will no longer be notable, but rather there will be awards that recognize women purely for their work and contributions,” Melvin said.

As the soon-to-be first CEO of a top 10 U.S. port, Melvin is already living up to her words.

Reach Teri Errico Griffis at 843-849-3144.

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1,000 WORDS

60

Swan Lake Iris Gardens in Sumter is the only public park in the United States where one can see all eight swan species. These Black Swans are native to Australia.

Birdwatchers can find a multitude of waterfowl species that live in the park, including Canada geese, mallards, wood ducks and many more.

The 150-acre park is also home to more than 120 varieties of iris.

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| CLINTON SPECULATIVE BUILDING

| MUFFIN MAM

| NEW FIBERTEX FACILITY

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Bobby’s BBQ 4.7 Open • Closes 8PM

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