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Bamberg Entrepreneur Launches Bourbon Barrel Business

Greg Pierce
Mike Switzer/SC Public Radio

If you are a bourbon lover, you know that demand is growing rapidly.  And if you are a distiller, you know that to meet that demand, you are going to need more oak barrels.  After 25 years of experience in the spirits industry, our next guest saw the need, ran the numbers, and decided to get in to the barrel business.

Mike Switzer interviews Greg Pierce, founder of Black Water Barrels in Bamberg, SC.

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After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.