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German Coatings Company Growing and Investing in Charleston

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Our next guest’s Germany-based company has been so successful with their only US manufacturing operations being located in our state, that they recently opened a brand new $30 million R&D facility and production plant.

Mike Switzer interviews Fabian Grimm, the US managing director for Mankiewicz Coatings in Charleston, 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.