2013 SCBiz - Winter

Winter 2013

Cyber safe

S.C. discovers niche in cybersecurity Immedion’s data center in Columbia offers layers of security for servers

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From the

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Dear Reader,

Editor

You hold in your hands an amazing display of the diversity of businesses in South Carolina. Each year, SC Biz News honors 40 of the state’s best-performing companies through its Roaring Twenties awards. We also join forces with the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce in honoring the 40 winners of Best Places to Work in S.C. That’s 80 companies you’ll be reading about, whose businesses touch technology, real estate, staffing, restaurants and everything in between.

Also adding to the weight of this issue – both literally and figuratively – is the second issue of RecyclonomicsSC, the publication of the recycling industry. You will find this full-size magazine in the center of this issue of SCBIZ. The recycling business is huge in South Carolina, providing 21,000 jobs, and $4 billion in investment since 2006. The S.C. Department of Commerce and New Carolina have done a great job organizing and supporting this cluster of businesses.

When we chose the cover story topic of cybersecurity for this issue, we had no idea how deep and wide that area of technology goes Licia Jackson in our state. We decided to focus mostly on the need that small- and Editor, medium-size businesses have for protection against cyberattacks and SCBIZ Magazine other computer-related crime. In a state where most of the taxpayers have had their personal information compromised by hacking, we know we can’t be too careful where databases, computers and technological devices are concerned.

Our county spotlight this issue focuses on Oconee County, the northwesternmost in our state. It’s a place of enormous natural beauty, but there’s a lot more to it. Companies are finding it’s also a great place to do business, with a dedicated workforce, support from local government and training resources available.

Featuring a South Carolina business accelerator in each issue of SCBIZ gives us the chance to share with you the variety among these centers that foster new businesses. This time you can learn about Midlands Technical College’s Enterprise Campus, where the Business Accelerator helps young businesses move out of the garage. And when they’re ready to take on new employees, Midlands Tech can help train them.

All in all, there is a lot to commend in this issue. We hope you can feel the celebration of the Roaring Twenties winners and the justified pride taken by the companies that are Best Places to Work. Hey, you might even find some ideas for your own workplace.

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SC Business Publications LLC A portfolio company of Virginia Capital Partners LLC Frederick L. Russell Jr., Chairman

1

Table of

Contents COVER STORY 20 CYBERSECURITY IN S.C. Protecting digital resources is a rapidly growing sector. South Carolina is well positioned to be an IT hub, with educational resources and other ways to meet business needs in place.

Six teams from Charleston area middle schools participate in a DimensionU competition at SPAWAR Systems Center Atlantic Conference Center at Joint Base Charleston - Weapons Station. DimensionU is part of SSC Atlantic’s science, technology, engineering and math outreach program. (U.S. Navy photo/Joe Bullinger)

Cover photo by Jeff Blake

FeatureS

www.scbizmag.com

2013

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27

51

South Carolina’s fastest-growing companies — 20 large companies and 20 small companies — receive honors.

Where are the Best Places to Work in South Carolina? Forty companies are winners in the 2013 competition.

Pullout magazine

RecyclonomicsSC, supporting the recycling industry in S.C.

Departments 4 Bill Settlemyer’s Viewpoint

10 Business Accelerator

72 S.C. Delivers

5 Upfront

12 Spotlight: Oconee County

80 1,000 words

Bill Settlemyer’s

Viewpoint Gov. Nikki Haley’s education revelation

A

www.scbizmag.com

s reported in the Charleston Regional Business Journal, Gov. Nikki Haley spoke earlier this fall to the Summerville Rotary Club about her recent trip to Frankfurt, Germany, to attend an international automotive show.

She and the other members of her economic development team met with more than 30 companies, and there was a big surprise awaiting her: “Every single one of those meetings, every single one, the very first question they asked me was K-12.

What’s your education? That floored me.

Not tax structure, not infrastructure.”

I have to admit my own surprise reading that Gov. Haley was “floored” to learn that K-12 education is at the top of the list for the manufacturers and suppliers that we’re trying to recruit to South Carolina. This is hardly a news flash for many of us in this state who have focused our attention on economic development over the years.

Still, it’s better to have the governor come to the party late than not at all. She announced at the Rotary Club meeting that she plans to launch an education initiative in January to focus on improved technology in the classroom, coaches for reading, better professional development for teachers and other measures that could show promise.

She also told the club that she has been working over the past year with her staff and a team of bipartisan lawmakers to come up with ways to improve the performance of our state’s schools.

4

Opportunity knocks, but who will answer?

Improving K-12 education remains a challenge both at the state and national levels. There is progress being made in our state, as the recently released statewide school report card data shows. But incremental progress is not enough. Only a quantum leap forward can transform South Carolina from a low-income state to one with widely shared prosperity, greater opportunity and supercharged economic growth. On this issue, we should be “swinging for the fences,” but we too often find ourselves tinkering around the edges.

One of the most fundamental building blocks for K-12 is universal early childhood education. The governor and those bipartisan legislators working on educational improvement would be off to a very good start if they would fully support legislative action to provide the funding for universal 4-K as a sustained statewide program.

They should also work with educators and the business and civic communities to achieve a strong consensus on the most effective steps than can be taken to improve K-12, and then support the funding needed to get the job done. This coming year would also be a good time for State Superintendent of Education Nick Zais to spend less time marching to his own drummer and more time helping other state leaders reach a consensus among the various constituencies trying to take our education system to the next level.

Subscription Information SCBIZ reaches thousands of South Carolina’s top decision-makers. Add your name to the list by ordering a print subscription to SCBIZ. Your subscription also includes SCBIZ

An exciting time

Daily. Delivered to your e-mail inbox each weekday morning, SCBIZ Daily is your link to statewide business news.

One year for $43.50

There’s reason for optimism about K-12 education in our state and the nation. Both from private and public sources, there’s some serious innovation going on, including the idea of “flipping the classroom,” a model in which students use online learning at home to study course content while teachers are freed up to spend their classroom time in one-on-one coaching to fill in the gaps in their students’ skills and comprehension of the course materials.

Ever since technology in the form of computers began to make its appearance in the classroom, it has been obvious that just giving students access to computers was not going to revolutionize education. But now we’re seeing the evolution of solid methods for blending online learning with classroom participation and coaching and oversight by teachers in this evolving environment. It’s an exciting time.

Opportunity knocks. Where K-12 education is concerned, our message for our state’s elected leaders should be very clear: Go big or go home.

Bill Settlemyer bsettlemyer@scbiznews.com

New subscribers Subscribe online at www.scbizmag.com or call 843.849.3116.

Current subscribers Change your address online at www.scbizmag.com or call 843.849.3116.

UPFRONT

regional news | data

ultu t r av el+c

Ne N e x t G r e at

Columbia’s Main Street featured in December Southern Living

Anchored by the State House, Main Street is lit up year-round.

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outh Carolina’s capital city welcomes everyone downtown, and Southern Living magazine takes note in its December issue, now on newsstands.

A regional edition of the staple of Southern life has good words for Columbia’s vibrant Main Street, which has taken on a new panache in the past few years. Suggested places to visit include Uptown on Main, Drip on Main, Circa 1332, the Whig, Wine Down on Main, and the Nickelodeon. A special shoutout goes to the Columbia Museum of Art, now hosting photographer Annie Liebovitz’s “Pilgrimage” exhibit.

The article focuses on the stretch of Main from Gervais Street, anchored by the State House, to Blanding. It’s a “must-visit corridor,” the editors say.

Another South Carolina location, John Rutledge House Inn in Charleston, is recommended as the place to start a tasty holiday progressive dinner. And Lowcountry oyster roasts are also on SL’s Holiday Must List. When you’ve had dinner and are looking for a sweet treat, the magazine suggests Dottie’s Toffee, made in Spartanburg and said to be a favorite of legislators at the State House.

FAST FACTS | CYBER THREATS

20%

Page 20

Global security market A growth rate of 11-12% per year is projected

$120 billion

$63.7 billion

2011

2017 Projection

www.scbizmag.com

of cyberattack victims are businessees with fewer than 250 employees

Cover Story

Source: U.S. House study; MarketsandMarkets research

5

Upfront www.scbizmag.com

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Women’s millions in gifts boost USC’s aerospace center

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hree businesswomen with South Carolina ties have given millions to the University of South Carolina’s McNair Center for Aerospace Innovation and Research.

The most recent gift came from Marva Smalls, a USC alumna and entertainment industry executive, who gave $1 million to establish a scholarship fund for USC students from the Pee Dee region who want to study aerospace technology.

Smalls, a Florence native, is executive vice Smalls president of Global Inclusion Strategy for Viacom and executive vice president of public affairs and chief of staff for Nickelodeon Networks Group.

The McNair Center is named in honor of Lake City native and astronaut Ronald E. McNair, a physicist and mission specialist for NASA, who died in the 1986 Challenger accident.

The McNair Center was launched in 2011 with a gift of $5 million from philanthropist and fellow Lake City native Darla Moore.

That gift was followed by another $5 million gift from Anita Zucker, CEO and chair of InterTech Group Inc. of North Charleston. Her gift to USC will create the Zucker Institute for Aerospace Innovation within the McNair Center.

Through the McNair Center, USC offers the state’s only master’s degree in either aerospace engineering or engineering management through a combination of onsite and online offerings. The center is developing an undergraduate systems design program.

The center’s mission is to advance South Carolina’s knowledge-based economy through innovative aerospace research, interdisciplinary education, economic development, outreach and collaboration with the aerospace and allied industries and related government agencies.

S.C. economy more tortoise than hare

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that the economy will pick up steam toward the end of the fourth quarter and stay on the recovery path, Von Nessen and executives from the banking and real estate sectors said.

Meanwhile, economists for Wells Fargo Bank say the 16-day standoff in Congress has the potential to shave as much as a halfpoint off fourth-quarter GDP, which will be felt in South Carolina.

“The good news is that, if history is any guide, the reduction in growth associated with such a shutdown often ends up being delayed consumption,” Wells Fargo said.

“The legislation included back pay for furloughed workers, so we may see some ‘lost’ growth materialize in following quarters.”

In 2013, South Carolina has seen employment improve, wages increase, and growth in high-tech GDP, Von Nessen said.

conomic growth across South Carolina has been slow while steadily in the right direction this year, but the trend continues to elicit groans from business owners who say it is tough going to grow a business in these sluggish times.

Local economists say building confidence among businesses and consumers will be key to growing South Carolina’s economy through 2014.

“South Carolina economic growth has persisted in 2013,” said Joseph Von Nessen, an economist at the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business.

“Stability is rising overall on the consumer side and the business side.”

Although the recent federal government shutdown and Congress’s fight over raising the debt ceiling haven’t helped, it’s likely

NEW ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Here are announcements made in South Carolina since Aug. 16, 2013.

Company

County

Investment

Jobs

BorgWarner Inc.

Oconee

$24.6 million

105

Fitesa Simpsonville Inc.

Greenville

$50 million

32

Mergon Corp.

Anderson

$4.4 million

22

KI Logistics

Greenville

$11.5 million

149

Louis Hornick & Co.

Allendale

$2.5 million

125

Dorchester

$2.7 million

117

York

$10 million

145

American Tactical Imports 3D Systems Corp.

WasteZero

Williamsburg

$3.1 million

27

Horry

$6.7 million

120

MWV Specialty Chemicals

Charleston

$9.3 million

N/A

Colgate-Palmolive Co.

Greenwood

$196 million

300

Palmetto Synthetics

Williamsburg

$1.1 million

20

Coroplast Tape Corp.

York

$12 million

150

Chester

$45 million

318

Spartanburg

$4 million

20

Ithaca Gun Co.

JN Fibers Inc. Laserflex Associated Hardwoods

Cherokee

$9.8 million

28

Daimler Vans Manufacturing

Charleston

$4.6 million

60

The Crown Group

Greenville

$5.4 million

42

Fraenkische Industrial Pipes

Anderson

$5 million

50

DUER High Performance Composites

Beaufort

$1 million

47

Element Electronics

Fairfield

$7.5 million

500

York

$3.5 million

50

$4 million

38

Silcotech North America Inc. Heiche US Surface Technology

Spartanburg

Source: S.C. Department of Commerce

Upfront

Companies that do it all How do you keep your employees happy while your company is growing rapidly?

Three South Carolina companies have found the key, as they are winners in both Best Places to Work in the state and SC Biz News’ Roaring Twenties awards for best-performing companies.

www.scbizmag.com

BoomTown

8

Subsidized gym memberships, a fitness boot camp in nearby Hampton Park, dogs at work and a three-tap bar in the office are just a few of the things that make Charleston-based BoomTown – which produces a real estate lead generation and CRM system – a fun place to work.

Will Munce, BoomTown talent coordinator, said the company puts the emphasis on its employees over the success of the company. And that means giving employees responsibility and flexibility. If an employee’s daughter has a dance recital, they are encouraged to talk to their team and manager so they can attend. “We don’t want you to miss that sort of thing,” Munce said.

Sometimes employees work from home and if someone is sick, they are encouraged to stay home, Munce said. The company has unlimited vacation, operating under the idea that people work hard, play hard and rest hard.

It’s a results-oriented environment that relies on having members who respect the flexible policies, get their work done and subscribe to the company’s core values, one of which is do the right thing, Munce explained. It’s what makes having a bar in the office work.

That’s not always easy when you’re adding 50 people to your staff over the course of a year. BoomTown has a culture interview that is used to hire everyone from the chief operating officer to the interns. The interview discussion is less about a person’s resume and more about who the candidate is, Munce said.

“The goal is not to find out what movies they like but to see if they share our core values,” Munce said. “We talk about culture with new hires on their first day. You’re part of this now … you’re responsible for this.”

BoomTown, which has 104 employees, still takes its time in hiring for rapid growth.

Each new hire must be a good fit.

SPARC LLC

2013

Begins on page 27

As a software product development company, SPARC knows innovation is a critical part of its culture and its business success.

So CEO Eric Bowman is intentional when it comes to creating a culture of innovation and then hiring employees who will thrive in that culture.

The team members at SPARC, Bowman said, create an environment that inspires innovation. And putting those people in place has led to the creation of key SPARC software products.

With its rapid growth Bowman said the company recognized staffing barriers were, first, getting people in the door and then retaining them. To better its own hiring process, the company developed Prepado, a database of 20,000 interview questions and answers that will generate content for a two-hour interview. “We’re empowering the interviewer to do a better job of interviewing,” Bowman said.

Once the right people are in place SPARC goes to work to keep them. Internally, people can pitch ideas for company funding – another way to encourage employee passions.

SPARC now has almost 200 employees at its Charleston headquarters and also was listed as 14th fastest-growing private company in the United States on the Inc. 500.

The company, as many tech companies do, has an overall relaxed environment and employee perks like flexible hours, good health care, a gym, snacks/coffee and games.

But those benefits are just the tangibles that go along with the overall environment Bowman said SPARC is trying to create.

That environment fosters learning and innovation, he said. “When team members are engaged, they are willing to stay after hours, do lunch ‘n learns and train other aspects of the organization in new technologies. Having that learning environment also helps breed innovation.”

Begins on page 51

Human Technologies Inc.

For some companies, “culture” is simply a buzzword. But for Human Technologies Inc. headquartered in Greenville, it’s at the heart of the company and a concept that is taken seriously.

“We have a culture that is supportive, respectful and fosters innovation,” said Katie Key, marketing and PR specialist. “We look for ways to support clients and bring them new ideas. Culture is super important at HTI.” HTI is a human resource advisory firm providing professional recruiting, industrial staffing, human resource consulting and logistics/warehouse management services.

With about 100 internal employees, the company does its best to create an environment where employees are friends, and family members are a welcome part of the organization.

About half the company social events are open to employees’ family members.

During the holiday season, HTI rents out a movie theater, buys the tickets and snacks and invites employees and their families for a night out. An employee dressed as Santa hands out gifts to all the children. They host a similar family movie night in the summer.

As the company has grown, maintaining that all-important company culture and family environment has been important – and challenging, Key said.

HTI is planning ahead for more growth and one of the items at the top of the list is how to grow a profitable business while maintaining the things that make people want to work at HTI and existing employees want to stay, Key said.

Staff members have read books and case studies about companies that choose profits over culture and those that choose culture over profits. “We want to continue to grow profitably but we have to make sure we don’t do it at a cost to our culture or who we are as a company,” Key said.

CONNECTING BUSINESS in South Carolina SC Biz News is the premier publisher of business news in the state of South Carolina. We publish the Charleston Regional Business Journal, Columbia Regional Business Report, GSA Business and SCBIZ magazine.

Connect your business to our statewide audience.

For information about statewide advertising, call Steve Fields at 843.849.3110.

Business accelerator

Business Accelerator

Midland’s Tech’s Enterprise Campus offers a Business Accelerator to help startups grow.

Enterprise Campus aiming to boost technology talent

By Mike Fitts

www.scbizmag.com

W 10

here does a startup company go when it is too big for the garage?

That can be a problematic phase, especially for a company that will pursue some type of manufacturing. It needs to ramp up its processes and begin serving customers, but overhead is a major issue.

To meet that need, Midlands Tech offers its Business Accelerator on its Enterprise Campus in Northeast Richland. As the region has grown in population, the Enterprise Campus is expanding to meet increasing demand while offering more specialized training in areas such as engineering and manufacturing.

The Business Accelerator on campus is host to five companies that are in that inbetween phase of growth, ready to get beyond the garage (in fact, one literally moved

in from a garage) and to begin finding their way in the market. The member companies get a 4,000 square-foot area that’s suitable for their manufacturing, plus adjoining office space.

Being in the accelerator, according to Enterprise Campus executive director Tom Ledbetter, gives the companies a chance to grow and flourish, then move on to their own bigger location after a few years ( most leases are for two years). “If you have to develop a process and you have to train a workforce, that’s where we are,” Ledbetter said.

One surprise from the Business Accelerator’s progress, Ledbetter said, is the way that the companies feed off each other. One company has two of the others as clients as those companies move toward manufacturing and automation.

The role of the accelerator dovetails with what Ledbetter describes as the larger mission of the Enterprise Campus: to nurture talent and dynamic companies to bolster the economy of the Midlands.

When plans for the Enterprise Campus, located off Parklane Road, were laid out more than a decade ago, the expectation was that it would be fueled in part by the Northeast’s growth. But the growth has exceeded even those expectations. When the campus was first planned, Ledbetter noted, there weren’t eight high schools within eight miles, as there are now.

All those students have created a drive for more general education classrooms on the campus, as students like to take courses nearby rather than drive to the Beltline campus. The new building just opened on campus is accommodating them and also

Business Accelerator

students focusing on manufacturing, engineering and other technical areas.

In the Engineering Technology and Sciences Building, general purpose classrooms sit just down the hall from a computer-aided design lab. Other labs and classrooms in the new building welcome students studying fuel-cell technology or nuclear plant operations.

Many jobs in South Carolina’s economy will require more than a high-school diploma but less than a four-year degree, and the Enterprise Campus is providing many avenues for young people to reach those potentially lucrative careers, Ledbetter said.

Once companies grow, the Enterprise Campus has 130 acres of land that is ready for industrial development inside the Carolina Research Park. But the goal of the endeavor isn’t to fill up real estate, Ledbetter notes. It is to nurture the skills of the next generation of South Carolina’s workforce.

“I’m being measured on how many jobs we create with these resources,” Ledbetter said.

By the numbers

PUTTING HEALTHCARE TO WORK

5

Number of businesses sharing the campus Business Accelerator workspaces

17

Employees of companies in the Accelerator

130

Total acres available on campus for expansion

900-1,200 6

Number of classes available in fuel-cell technology

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11

county spotlight

OCONEE

Lake Jocassee’s beauty draws many visitors to Oconee County.

Photography from Oconee County Economic Development Commission

Oconee County

creating ‘geography of opportunity’

I

Oconee County By the numbers , 2012

in time and mystery. They know tourists come in hip waders and RVs, kayaks

Population: 74,273

and buses, minivans and Harley rides to see the waterfalls, to test the rapids,

Median age: 44

t’s not that Oconee County economic developers are forgetting history and beauty. They’re not. They know they live and work in a beautiful place.

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They know its mountains and lakes and rivers possess an allure steeped

12

to breathe in the tannin-rich oxygen of autumn, to feel the chill of the misty, moist spring mornings.

Oconee County has what outdoor enthusiasts love. And increasingly, it also has what new business is looking for.

Special Advertising Section

Per capita incom e: Median househol income: $39,130 d

$22,824

Source: U.S. Cens us

County Spotlight: OCONEE www.scbizmag.com

Whitewater falls bound down the mountainsides in Oconee County. At left, fisherman try their luck on Lake Keowee on a misty morning.

Just the latest in a series of economic development announcements came earlier this month when BorgWarner Inc., a global leader in powertrain technology, announced a $24.6 million investment to expand its manufacturing operations in Oconee County. The expansion of the plant at Seneca is expected to create 105 jobs, adding to the 300 already making transfer cases there.

“The ‘Golden Corner’ is just beginning to shine,” said Richard Blackwell, executive director of the Oconee County Economic Development Commission, shortly after the announcement.

For decades, the county had what seemed to be quiet success and coasted as a great place for a few to live where others visit.

While the brochures still show mountains and lakes, the Oconee County Economic Development Commission has its own goals for the county. Blackwell is himself a lover of the outdoors. And he shows the mountainous brochures to prospects, because, he said, “There’s got to be something to do away from the office and no better place than the recreational offerings in Oconee County.”

What he’s really after, however, is the ka-ching of the local merchant’s cash

14

Special Advertising Section

register, the hum of the local office, and the smash-bang-whirr of industry new or established.

Oconee County is no stranger to industry. The vine-covered brick remnants of factories rise above many unused (or underused) plots of land, reminders that things come and go. And textiles are mostly gone.

What’s left behind, however, is a population eager to adapt to the new economic realities.

They still gather here and there at crossroads scattered through the hills and mountains that arc across this county on the border of two other states. They gather with banjos and fiddles and dulcimers for semispontaneous bluegrass. The music echoing off the trees and hills may be traditional, but the mindset of the residents both playing and listening is not – not when it comes to making a living, anyway.

The banjo picker is more likely a machinist than a cotton mill doffer, the dulcimer player more likely to be a robotics engineer than a mule spinner, the fiddle player more likely a college professor than a carder.

When Oconee County residents think of cotton mills nowadays, mostly they think of them as good places for museums and art

colonies, or potential redevelopment sites.

Cotton mills are for looking back. Today’s Oconee workforce — the grandchildren of carders and doffers and mule spinners — is looking forward. And what they see are jobs that require a better-educated and highly skilled workforce that nevertheless appreciates the hardscrabble efforts of their forbears.

And it’s not a pipe dream. The largest industrial employer in the county, Duke Energy Corp., puts most of its employees to work creating nuclear energy on the edge of Lake Keowee. Oconee Nuclear Station dates to 1973 and has an output capacity of 2,538 megawatts of power; that’s enough electricity to power 1.9 million homes, according to Duke Energy. In job-speak, that means about 1,500 well-paying jobs for Oconee and surrounding counties.

According to Blackwell, the Oconee County Economic Development Commission is working hard to create more. Their strategic plan sets sights on health care and bioscience, product manufacturing, automotive, energy and warehousing /distribution.

Blackwell says the county hasn’t been looking so much for the one-time strike to land an industrial giant as it has been laying

County Spotlight: OCONEE

the ground work and infrastructure for sustained long-term growth, whether it comes in large or small chunks.

Besides overall appeal of the county and its location, Blackwell points to three “products” ready to sell.

Oconee Industry & Technology Park:

Oconee Industry and Technology Park has 300 buildable acres just 15 minutes off Interstate 85.

Fifteen minutes from Interstate 85 via exit 1, the park includes more than 300 buildable acres on county-owned land. It has two “pad-ready” sites of 50,000 square feet and 300,000 square feet. It is a certified industrial park with a full master plan and protective covenants, and all infrastructure, including dark fiber, is in place. No South Carolina industrial park is closer to Atlanta.

“All a company has to do is make the decision and they can start construction immediately,” Blackwell says.

Golden Corner Commerce Park: With more than 230 buildable acres on county-owned land, its just two miles from I-85 via exit 2. Sewer infrastructure is soon-to-be-completed and the first phase of construction is underway.

It’s also a fully master planned park with protective covenants and in the process of site certification from the S.C. Department of Commerce.

Seneca Rail Site:

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This 124-acre site is served by Norfolk Southern Railroad. All infrastructure is onsite already, including a dedicated electric substation.

The site is 15 miles from the interstate and less than three from Oconee County Regional Airport. The rail site sits within a New Market Tax Credit Zone, a federal incentive to stimulate growth.

“We know economic development is a process, not an event,” Blackwell says.

“What we’re trying to do is put everything in place to create that geography of opportunity. What you are seeing is a new Oconee County that is investing in itself and taking a new direction that’s going to bring about economic prosperity.”

Although Oconee County is in the northwestern tip of the state, Blackwell

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County Spotlight: OCONEE

sees the geography from another step away, placing the county about halfway between Charlotte and Atlanta, with I-85 — the main avenue between the two commerce centers — passing through the county. With a major research university on the edge of the county at Clemson University and several other colleges nearby, the county is in prime position to offer a family or an employer almost anything, he says.

“Oconee County is the geography of opportunity when you’re looking at us,” he says. “We have an excellent quality of life, our education system is great, pristine natural surroundings, one of the lowest tax structures in the state – the second lowest in South Carolina. Whatever kind of quality of life you want, you can find it here. If you like rural, we have that, if you want to live on a lake, we have that, if you want to live near a university, we have that as well. A lot of great things are in Oconee County and we feel it’s a message beginning to take root.”

Greg Smith concurs. He is manufacturing manager for Lift Technologies Inc., which employs about 200 outside the town of Westminster, where they make fork lift masts.

BorgWarner Inc., with an established plant in Seneca, recently announced a major expansion that will add 105 jobs to the 300 already there.

“Oconee County is a perfect fit for Lift Technologies because of several things,” he says. “Professionals, such as mechanical engineers, find the location desirable and family-friendly as it is close to lakes, mountains and the coast — the fact that we are within an hour of both a medium-size and a large city and everything they have to offer

for anyone’s interest.”

Smith also praised the vocational system that couples the public schools with TriCounty Technical College.

The college is based just a few miles away in Pickens County and has a campus in Seneca called the Hamilton Career Center, a partnership between the school district and

www.scbizmag.com Special Advertising Section

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County Spotlight: OCONEE

Top: Whitewater rafting on the Chattooga River draws many tourists to Oconee County.

Left: U.S. Engine Valve employs 375 in the county.

Other companies with 200 or more are BASF Catalysts (385), precious metal catalyst; U.S. Engine Valve Co. (375), engine valves; Sandvik (330), cutting tools; Johnson Controls (285), plastic components for automobile batteries; Greenfield Industries (285), drill bits; and Lift-Tek Elecar Masts

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the college.

“My advice to someone considering moving a business to Oconee would be: great industrial development group that not only promotes the county but supports existing industry, South Carolina technical school system ensures trained workers that can be trained to company-specific jobs, and the workforce is smart, dedicated and loyal.”

Blackwell says attention to existing industries is equally important to the commission.

“We are being very aggressive working with existing industries trying to do what we can to help them,” he says. “And we’re not just focusing on large companies but trying to work with the small business community. We’re trying to cover all our bases, recruiting, taking care of existing business and growing our entrepreneurs.”

In Seneca, Hampton Inn and Suites recently opened a new location that represents about $12 million in investment and is intended to anchor a 20-acre tract of land on the east end of town. Developers hope to place a mix of restaurants, retail shops, office space and residential housing there.

The county is a partner in the Tri-County Entrepreneurial Development Corporation, an incubator based in downtown Walhalla, the county seat, dedicated to helping small businesses develop and expand to create new jobs.

Besides Duke Energy and the school district (which employs about 1,600), other large employers are: • Oconee Medical Center, 1,300 employees • Itron Inc., whose 550 employees manufacture smart meters • Schneider Electric-Square D, where 525 workers make motor control sensors • Koyo/JTEKT, whose 515 employees make thrust bearings.

Special Advertising Section

Cybersecurity in S.C.

Rainbow trout swim at the S.C. Fish Hatchery in Walhalla.

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and its 200 employees.

Manufacturing is the county’s largest employment sector, according to information provided by Upstate SC Alliance. In all, more than 5,000 Oconee residents work in manufacturing.

The county census showed 74,273 residents, and that number was up by about a thousand in 2012, according to the Upstate SC Alliance, which predicts almost 77,500 by 2017.

For being part of a Colonial state, the population centers of Oconee County are relatively young. The area was home to a Cherokee town that is now at the bottom of Lake Jocassee. Walhalla wasn’t founded until 1850, when the families of German immigrants moved to the Upstate, and the county officially formed in 1868. Seneca, the largest city in the county with just under 9,000, and Westminster were founded in 1874 and 1875 along railroad lines that remain active.

The county was agriculture-based with the railroad bringing in textile industries as the 19th century gave way to the 20th. It remained mostly unchanged until after World War II. Interstate 85 cut through the southern part of the county and made Atlanta and Charlotte suddenly closer. In 1962 the Army Corps of Engineers completed the Hartwell Lake reservoir and a decade later Duke created Jocassee and Keowee lakes and established the area as a recreation destination.

Leisure and hospitality account for almost 2,000 Oconee County jobs, with natural resources accounting for another 50.

National forest, state forest and state, county and city parks are abundant throughout the county. Recently, National Geographic named the Jocassee Gorges one of the Top 50 destinations of a lifetime.

“A lot of good things are happening in Oconee County,” Blackwell said. “We have good industrial real estate assets coming on-line blended with our existing industries and this is on top of our tourism opportunities. If we keep working toward it, we will put ourselves in position for a bright future. Honestly, you can just feel the momentum. It’s a lot of work but it is all part of the process of creating a new Oconee County.”

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Cyberse Keeping small businesses safe fr

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ecurity om harm is next area of growth

By Ashley Boncimino, Staff Writer

Cybersecurity jobs are going to grow exponentially in the next few years. With a push and some strategic development, South Carolina could become the next commercial cybersecurity and information technology hub. The key will be the state’s high quality of life, low cost of living, low cost of doing business and, most crucially, availability of cybersecurity talent.

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Cybersecurity in S.C. www.scbizmag.com

Matt Day, left, director of operations and engineering, and general manager Tommy Crutchfield check the security of a server at Immedion’s Data Center in Columbia. Photo/Jeff Blakes

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When you think of heavy cybersecurity and information technology hubs, chances are you’re not thinking about Kansas City.

Or Atlanta. Or San Antonio.

Or even Charleston.

“What has happened over the last 20 years is that (the cybersecurity) sector has grown quite a lot,” said Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President Mary Graham. “We have the skill base there now.”

For several years, South Carolina has been growing its advanced security and IT industry, using the many military and federal entities in the area – Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic (SPAWAR), the Charleston Air Force Base, the Naval Weapons Station, the U.S. Department of State Financial Services Center, among others – as a natural jumping-off point for the digital technology corridor.

Much of the growth in Charleston is due to the cybersecurity needs of local military entities. The area boasts over 100 IT companies, and the Charleston Regional Development Alliance estimates the area saw over $8 billion in defense contracts since 2000.

But the writing’s on the wall: “The military is a big part of our economy, and a lot of that is going to be shrinking as budgets go down,” said Graham of the Charleston Metro Chamber. “The opportunity in cyber is not just the military. It’s the whole federal government, as well as the commercial sector, banks, medical facilities, etc.”

Worth $63.7 billion in 2011, the global security market could be worth over $120 billion by 2017, growing at 11-12% per year, according to market research and consulting company MarketsandMarkets.

“There’s no question in my mind that the need for network security and protecting data is only going to grow,” said Frank Mobley, CEO and founder of Greenville data center services and infrastructure provider Immedion.

Charleston and other South Carolina cities could be the next hubs of cybersecurity because of the existing resources, capabilities and conditions that make them perfect for cybersecurity and IT companies.

But instead of relying as heavily on military and federal contracts, companies will start shifting and catering to more underserved segments of the market: namely, small and medium businesses.

“There’s been tons of money going into the .mil and .gov websites,” said South Carolina Research Authority’s Applied R&D President Chris Van Metre. “I think there’s a growing sense that the vast amounts of money that’s being spent in those areas is not transitioning well to the small innovative companies.”

Nearly 20% of cyberattack victims are businesses with fewer than 250 employees, according to a U.S. House of Representatives report. Small and medium enterprises rely more heavily on intellectual property but are also less likely to have the budget margin to spend more to protect it. While large companies and military operations pour billions into locking down their valuables, smaller enterprises might not even survive a cybersecurity breach.

Van Metre recently spoke at what he considers to be the kickoff of cybersecurity in Charleston, the Cybersecurity for National Security Conference, in September.

“This was really to open the conversation about the threat, about the need to work

Cybersecurity tips for small businesses 1.

Train employees in security principles.

2. Protect information, computers and networks from cyber attacks. Keep software updated and run antivirus software as required.

3.

Provide firewall security for your Internet connection.

4. Create a mobile security device action plan, requiring password protection and security apps.

5.

Make backup copies of important business data and information, backing up automatically if possible.

Store backup copies offsite or in the cloud.

6. Control physical access to your computers and create user accounts for each employee. Lock up laptops when unattended.

7.

Secure your Wi-Fi networks.

Make sure this network is secure, encrypted and hidden.

8. Employ best practices on payment cards, working with banks or processors to ensure the most trusted and validated tools and antifraud services are being used.

Cybersecurity in S.C.

collaboratively to develop solutions,” he said. “Part of this was letting folks know that the importance of cybersecurity is fundamental to this future viability.”

Other cyber hubs have popped up in cities such as San Antonio, Texas, which claims to be second only to Washington in the number of cybersecurity professionals, and Kansas City, both in Missouri and Kansas, named IT hub and “Silicon Prairie” by the Wall Street Journal. These cities sport similar workforce development initiatives, quality of life efforts and business-friendly practices that South Carolina can learn from, emulate and exceed.

Advanced engineering company Scientific Research Corp. Executive Vice President James Ward thinks it won’t take as much work as you might think.

“It’s very rare that you’ve got all the right ingredients,” he said, citing workforce development programs, a collaborative city and state, and quality of life. “All the ingredients are here. They’re not here in total, and they require some investment, but

9. Limit employee access to data and information, and limit authority to install software. Employees should have access only to the specific data systems they need for their jobs.

10. Passwords and authentication.

Require employees to use unique passwords and to change them every three months. Consider using multifactor authentication beyond password to gain entry.

Source: Federal Communication Commission; more information at www.fcc.gov/cyberforsmallbiz

See CYBERSECURITY, Page 24

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Cybersecurity in S.C.

CYBERSECURITY, from page 23

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they’re here.”

One of the largest challenges for IT companies is talent, and cities like Charleston have not only built up tertiary training and initiatives, but high school and elementary school targeted ones as well. Local competitions, awareness campaigns and joint programs are letting students know the opportunities in the industry, while larger institutions like the College of Charleston and The Citadel give a close-to-home picture of what training for IT careers looks like.

Some South Carolina organizations have formed for this very purpose, such as Columbia-based IT-ology, a nonprofit that focuses on getting businesses, academic institutions and organizations to collaborate on growing the IT talent pipeline. The organization has opened locations in Greenville and Charlotte since it was founded in 2008, and focuses on exposing K-12 students to the career opportunities in IT, as well as advancing professional IT development.

Part of the appeal of cybersecurity is the

low barrier to entry, according to Ward of Scientific Research Corp., who said that an advanced degree isn’t absolutely necessary to find a job in the field. “It’s not like getting a master’s degree in electrical engineering,” he said. There are around 30 professional-level certification programs on the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies website that don’t specifically require a degree, he said.

A second ingredient is the business environment and government support.

“South Carolina has become of late viewed as a great place to start a new company,” said Van Metre.

Immedion’s Mobley agrees. “Part of the reason we’re here, because I didn’t live here before Immedion, was that the state of South Carolina welcomed us with open arms,” he said.

Another huge advantage the state has in positioning itself as a cybersecurity hub is its reputation when it comes to quality of life, according to Noah Leask, co-founder and president of information and cyberdominance company Ishpi Information Tech-

nologies. Not only is South Carolina a right to work state with a great support system for companies, but it’s simply a great place to live. “We’re able to attract the top talent around the nation because people want to be in Charleston,” said Leask. “We’re here because we want to be here.”

Leask’s company currently focuses exclusively on federal work, but not a single ISHPI client is within the state. Leask still chose to build the company’s corporate headquarters in Charleston. “It’s a great place to raise a family,” he said.

With all of the right ingredients in hand, the Charleston Metro Chamber has taken the next step by beginning a cyberindustry inventory map, according to Graham, who has been looking at similar areas that have been trying to grow this cluster.

“There are certain areas within which we might already have a natural niche,” she said. “We’re asking, ‘What are the capabilities we already have in the community, where are the areas that are going to be growing most, and how can we position ourselves strategically for the future?’”

Cybersecurity in S.C.

Jordan Keys uses an iPad to remotely control a car in a timed challenge as Gordon Martin keeps score.

(Photo/Leslie Burden)

Cyber camp educates students about STEM

A

By Matt Tomsic

“Even if they think they know what it is, they don’t,” Earle said. “The idea is to help them see the real world applications to this, that it’s a very lucrative profession in which they can make a good living. We want kids to have options.”

Some of the students already know they want to go to Clemson University to study engineering but others are interested in getting professional certifications that allow them to go to work straight out of high school.

Earle said they’re already planning next year’s event and have about 25 ideas for it.

The school would welcome anyone who’d like to visit or volunteer with students.

“The idea is to continue to follow through with different ideas that are simulated that the kids can find some type of engineering or tech component that interests them,” Earle said.

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t the end of the Palmetto Cybersecurity Camp, students were given one final task: Prove two “people” were spies and keep them detained by decoding digital evidence found on them.

About 50 students participated in the inaugural cyber camp, and the final challenge required them to search two detained mannequins for USB drives and then decode the information on the drives.

The exercise was part of the weeklong camp, which taught high school students and eighth-graders about encrypting, cyber risk management, mobile device security, home computer security and cyberspace’s legal and ethical issues, among other activities, said Sarah Earle, building administrator for the Lowcountry Tech Academy, which hosted the camp. Earle said the spy scenario was a student favorite.

“The kids enjoyed all of it,” she said. “But that was something that allowed them to be a spy for a day. It can be exciting.

There are some things that are James Bondish.”

Industry partners for the camp included the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic, Benefitfocus and the National Defense Education Program.

Earle said the camp exposed students to the technology field and educated them about the breadth of jobs that are available in tech.

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Cybersecurity in S.C.

& Present

T

he Roaring Twenties recognizes the 40 best-performing companies in South Carolina: 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 be headquar-

tered in South Carolina; only for-profit companies are eligible.

The nominated companies provided financial information to SC Biz News, which was sent to the ac-

counting firm Dixon Hughes Goodman 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 2010, 2011 and 2012. A formula was applied that determines the dollar growth year over year, as well as percent increase year over year. Both of these criteria were added together 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 being the fastest-growing.

All 40 companies were honored at an event in Columbia on Oct. 24. The companies and their profiles are presented in this issue of SC BIZ. We hope you enjoy reading more about them.

Presented by

www.scbizmag.com

SC Biz News is the publisher of:

Also Sponsored by

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Roaring twenties Winners

Rick Davis, CPA Firm Managing Shareholder

“Every day we aim to provide our people with rewarding opportunities and fulfilling careers.”

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While many businesses say the key to their success is their people, we know the key to our success is our dedicated people. Elliott Davis is proud to be named among the “Best Places to Work in SC” for a seventh straight year. Thank you to our fully engaged team and congratulations to all 2013 honorees.

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South Carolina Locations: Charleston • Columbia • Greenville • Greenwood www.elliottdavis.com • 800.503.4721

Photos from the event

Roaring twenties Winners

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Roaring twenties Winners: Large Companies

1

NEM USA Corp.

Winner: Large Companies 164 Milestone Way • Greenville, SC 29615 www.nemusacorp.com

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Total number of local employees: 27 Top local executive: Brad Cunic Product or service: Heat Recovery Steam Generators (HRSGs), emissions abatement equipment, fired boilers and aftermarket services. NEM USA’s products typically connect to the exhaust of a gas turbine (essentially an enlarged jet engine), converting hot exhaust gas into steam for a steam turbine to make electricity.

Year founded locally: 2010

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Company bio: NEM Energy bv in the Netherlands, established in 1929, is a global leading engineering company in the field of steam generating equipment. NEM supplies custom-made solutions regarding industrial, utility and Heat Recovery Steam Generators for power generation and industrial applications throughout the world.

NEM was active in the U.S. during the late 1990s and early 2000s, although economic conditions and mergers resulted in NEM losing its U.S. presence. NEM USA was started in Greenville on Nov. 1, 2010, and grew by hiring a mix of seasoned professionals, expatriates from other sister business units, and high-potential employees from the surrounding area. NEM USA is a very diverse, multinational group of professionals with employees from Vietnam, China, Netherlands, Nigeria and Puerto Rico, as well as the United States. NEM recently completed the state of the art El Segundo I project in California, incorporating the latest boiler technology and low emissions technology. Today NEM USA is working with Siemens on

three large projects in Texas.

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

The main driver of our growth is the recent developments in economical extraction of natural gas and abundance of shale gas. In addition, EPA rulings increasing the cost of coal-fired generation of electricity along with the retirement of inefficient and obsolete coal-fired plants that are being replaced with new gas turbine technology are driving our current growth.

What sets your company apart from the competition?

NEM’s dedication to quality, reliability and value delivered to our clients. NEM has some of the best thermal engineering talent in the world, with the ability and resources to solve almost any technical issue in the industry.

How have your company’s employees helped build success? NEM USA employees are critical to our success. Each comes with a specific skill set and experience necessary for our team to be successful. They each contribute to building confidence with our home office, our customer base and potential clients. Being a small operation, everyone accepts that we have to be multi-skilled and perform multiple tasks in the organization, regardless of position, experience and seniority. The team has the attitude of “whatever it takes.” Last but not least, our senior members have the hearts of teachers, transferring knowledge and skills to our younger team members.

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200 E. Broad St., Suite 150 • Greenville, SC 29601 www.creativebuilders.net Total number of local employees: 37 Top local executive: William H. McCauley III, president Product or service: General construction Year founded locally: 1971 Company bio: Creative Builders Inc. is a general contractor serving the Southeast with specialties in multifamily apartments, medical, financial institutions, upfits and commercial construction.

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth? We’ve been fortunate and blessed to be in the multifamily sector of general contractors.

What sets your company apart from the competition? Our employees and our customers are extremely loyal. We exercise the time-tested recipe of doing what we say we are going to do and our customers know that.

Roaring twenties Winners: Large Companies

Creative Builders Inc.

4

Human Technologies Inc.

Editor’s Note: The president and CEO of NewVenue Technologies Inc. has been charged with breach of trust with fraudulent intent, value $10,000 or more, by the State Law Enforcement Division, according to a warrant filed in Richland County Magistrate’s Court on Nov. 1, 2013. SC Biz News is holding the company out of the Roaring Twenties winners list (No. 3, large companies) and keeping their position on the list open. If the company official is cleared of the charges, the company will be reinstated.

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105 N. Spring Street, Suite 200 • Greenville, SC 29601 www.htijobs.com Total number of local employees: 2,100 on weekly payroll; 100 in corporate office Top local executive: Herbert W. Dew III, president Product or service: Recruiting/staffing and complex project management Year founded locally: 1999 Company bio: Headquartered in Greenville, Human Technologies Inc. is a multifaceted human resource advisory firm providing professional recruiting, industrial staffing, human resource consulting, outplacement services and logistics/warehouse management services. Founded in 1999, HTI is one of the Southeast’s most innovative and versatile human resource firms leveraging the development and delivery of custom-designed programs. HTI prides itself on providing flexible solutions to meet the needs of their client’s most demanding challenges.

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Roaring twenties Winners: Large Companies www.scbizmag.com

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5

6

Ishpi Information Technologies Inc.

Sabal Homes LLC

496 Bramson Court, Suite 160 • Mount Pleasant, SC 29464 www.ishpi.net Total number of local employees: 171 Top local executive: Noah Leask, chairman, president and CEO Product or service: ISHPI specializes in information and cyber dominance and C5ISR Engineering and Technical Services. Our core capabilities are information operations, information warfare, information assurance, electronic warfare, cybersecurity and cyberwarfare. We provide capabilities in system engineering and integration, intelligence support, enterprise architecture, acquisition management, logistics support, training, and information technology services.

Year founded locally: 2006 Company bio: ISHPI, an international SBA company, is an American Indian and Department of Veterans Affairs Verified Service Disabled Veteran-Owned certified 8(a) Small Disadvantaged Business with offices in Charleston; San Antonio; Tidewater, Va., and the capital region.

401 Seacoast Parkway, Suite H • Mount Pleasant, SC 29464 www.SabalHomesSC.com Total number of local employees: 17 Top local executive: R. Matthew Jones, Jason E. Simpson, W. Todd Ussery Product or service: Homebuilder Year founded locally: 2005 Company bio: Named for the sabal palmetto, state tree of S.C., Sabal Homes offers the combined expertise of three Carolina natives: Matt Jones, Jason Simpson and Todd Ussery. With extensive backgrounds in land acquisition, product development, construction, and customer service, we deliver unsurpassed value to the new home buyer in the Charleston market. Our personal and professional values and quality standards are reflected in every aspect of the homebuilding process.

The Sabal Homes approach emphasizes appealing streetscapes and exteriors combined with modern, functional floor plans. From home design to closing, we listen and respond to our customers’ needs.

8

GBS Building Supply

AM Conservation Group Inc.

11 Geneva Court• Greenville, SC 29607 • gbsbuilding.com Total number of local employees: 95 Top local executive: Bob Barreto, CEO Product or service: In addition to a full-service lumberyard, GBS supplies building products to builders, contractors, and homeowners such as windows, doors, drywall, decking, cabinets and countertops, roofing, siding, insulation and house wrap, as well as locks and hardware.

Year founded locally: 1972 Company bio: GBS is an employee-owned company, founded in 1972 by a group of 10 Upstate home builders. With four store locations and a drywall division, GBS offers the best products, services, and solutions to customers in Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina.

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth? The majority of our growth this year came from an increase in market share and the launch of new product lines such as drywall and turn-key cabinetry solutions.

2301 Charleston Regional Parkway • Charleston, SC 29492 www.amconservationgroup.com Total number of local employees: 36 direct employee at our home office in Charleston.

Top local executive: Todd Recknagel, CEO Product or service: Energy and water conservation products and services Year founded locally: 1989 Company bio: AM Conservation Group, Inc. is the leading expert in energy and water efficiency solutions designed to provide maximum value for a client’s investment. The company has facilitated some of the largest and most effective energy preservation programs in U.S. history with utility companies, program managers and government agencies. To support its programs and services, the company specializes in the development, manufacturing and distribution of more than 700 professional-grade products for the conservation industry.

Roaring twenties Winners: Large Companies

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Roaring twenties Winners: Large Companies

9

Long’s Drugstores of South Carolina Inc. 454 Berryhill Road • Columbia, SC 29210 • www.longsrx.com Total number of local employees: 227 Top local executive: Kenneth Long, president Product or service: Retail and closed door pharmacy services Year founded locally: 1951 Company bio: Long’s Drugs was founded more than 60 years ago

by Gene Long as a neighborhood pharmacy in downtown Columbia.

Today, President Kenneth Long, son of Gene, maintains the tradition of providing excellent customer service and value while spearheading growth. Long’s Drugs remains based in Columbia with 20 locations in South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia. Keeping the family-owned aspect of the business, Ashley Long Ellis and Rebecca Long Gillespie, Kenneth’s daughters, are the third generation taking over daily operations of the company with CEO Christi Epps. The company’s mission statement, developed by its employees, is “To be the best service oriented company at providing pharmaceutical care for all patients.”

10

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SPARC

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2387 Clements Ferry Road • Charleston, SC 29492 • sparcedge.com Total number of local employees: 185 Top local executive: Eric Bowman Product or service: Software product development services Year founded locally: 2009 Company bio: SPARC is a software product development company creating engaging, forward-thinking technology while keeping team members, customers, partners and the community at the core of everything they do. With offices in Charleston and Washington, D.C., SPARC provides software development services for the government and commercial sectors, and develops commercial software products for the executive leadership, human resources, energy management, big data analytics, and mobile markets.

What sets your company apart from the competition? We are a “People First, First” company, and it’s this focus on talent that sets us apart from other software companies.

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108 Clair Drive • Piedmont, SC 29673 • www.kudzustaffing.com Total number of local employees: 21 in house and 500+ field Top local executives: Will Jones and Sean Thornton Product or service: Staffing and human resources Year founded locally: 2006 Company bio: Kudzu Staffing began in 2006 after a round of golf between two childhood friends. Kudzu is true to its name because it grows fast, is hard to stop, and covers everything!

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth? Our diversity in all aspects of staffing has driven our success. We specialize in several areas such as manufacturing, construction and administrative. Our construction business has been a key factor for us this year.

What sets your company apart from the competition? Our recruiters, speed to fill orders, and our employee benefits are what makes us different. We are not a temporary staffing company. We treat each employee as part of the family.

Roaring twenties Winners: Large Companies

Kudzu Staffing Inc.

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Wireless Communications

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105 E. North Street, Suite 100 • Greenville, SC 29601 www.TheWCinc.com Total number of local employees: 125 in South Carolina, 285 total Top local executive: Krish V. Patel, president and CEO Product or service: Verizon Wireless Premium Retailer Year founded locally: 2008 Company bio: Wireless Communications is a Premium Retailer for Verizon Wireless products and services. Headquartered in Greenville, the company has 41 locations across South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky and West Virginia.

What new product or service offerings have you added? Total home solutions, i.e., telephone, cable, Internet.

What changes do you see for your business in the year ahead? Margins will continue to narrow, giving our business the opportunity to add innovative products and services.

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Roaring twenties Winners: Large Companies www.scbizmag.com

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Marabu North America

Total Beverage Solution

2460-A Remount Road • North Charleston, SC 29406 www.marabu-northamerica.com Total number of local employees: 30 Top local executive: Bob Keller Product or service: Specialty inks (screen print, pad print and digital) and liquid coatings Year founded locally: 2007 Company bio: Marabu is a leading global manufacturer of screen, digital and pad printing inks. The company is headquartered near Stuttgart in Southern Germany. Marabu’s track record of innovation stretches back more than 60 years, featuring many industry-first solutions for both industrial applications and graphic design. Marabu North America became the U.S. subsidiary following a merger with Clearstar Coatings, LP and Autoroll Print Technologies in March 2011. With over 26,000 square feet in North Charleston, Marabu North America is rapidly expanding sales and support in the U.S., Canada and Central America.

421 Wando Park Blvd., Suite 200 • Mount Pleasant, SC 29464 www.totalbeveragesolution.com Total number of local employees: 15 Top local executive: Dave Pardus, CEO and president Product or service: Alcoholic beverages Year founded locally: 2002 Company bio: Total Beverage Solution is supplier and importer of beverage alcohol products throughout the U.S. The company operates in all three major categories: beer, wine and spirits, and has a premium portfolio of unique brands sourced from all over the globe.

What major changes has your company experienced since being named a Roaring 20s winner in 2012? We moved into a new office after five years at our prior address, with space to expand.

What important acquisitions or changes in staffing have you made?

We have added five new positions in 2013. We have made one small acquisition during the year, which should add $1.5 million in revenue.

15

912 Lady Street (P.O. Box 2005) • Columbia, SC 29201 www.cohnconstruction.com Total number of local employees: 18 Top local executives: Richard and Harris Cohn Product or service: General contractor Year founded locally: 1993 Company bio: Cohn Construction started in 1993 and aimed to build a reputation as a construction company of quality, value and integrity.

Celebrating our 20th year in business, our focus has been and will continue to be centered on performance and delivering quality work over growth. As a family-run business we value the relationships that we have with our people, our subcontractors and our clients. Our best advocates are our clients and the majority of the work we do is from repeat customers and referrals. We have extensive experience with work ranging from commercial, medical and industrial projects to elaborate interior renovations.

16

17

South Atlantic Bank

eGroup Inc 482 Wando Boulevard •Mount Pleasant, SC 29464 www.eGroup-us.com Total number of local employees: 47 Top local executive: Mike Carter, founder/principal Product or service: Cloud computing, applications and data services, and end-user computing solutions Year founded locally: 1999 Company bio: Headquartered in Mount Pleasant, eGroup provides innovative cloud, application and end-user computing services to businesses across the Southeast. One of the region’s fastest growing companies and winner of the 2013 CRN “Tech Elite 250,” eGroup’s solutions drive customer revenue while reducing cost to maintain IT infrastructures. eGroup has an office in Columbia as well.

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth? Applications and data services and cloud computing offerings though eGroup’s eCloud.

www.scbizmag.com

630 29th Avenue North • Myrtle Beach, SC 29577 SouthAtlanticBank.com Total number of local employees: 60 Top local executive: K. Wayne Wicker, chairman of the board and CEO Product or service: Banking Year founded locally: 2007 Company bio: Founded in 2007 by a group of Grand Strand business leaders to meet the needs of small to medium businesses and their owners, South Atlantic Bank has grown to four full-service offices along the Grand Strand and a loan production office in Charleston.

The Myrtle Beach headquarters opened in 2007, followed by Murrells Inlet office in 2008, Pawleys Island office in 2012, and the Georgetown office and Charleston loan production office in 2013. In 2013, the bank expanded its product menu to include a mobile banking app and text message service for debit card expenditures. South Atlantic Bank is a South Carolina chartered bank that is fully insured by the FDIC.

Roaring twenties Winners: Large Companies

Cohn Construction Services

37

www.scbizmag.com

Roaring twenties Winners: Large Companies

18

38

SYSTEMTEC Inc. 246 Stoneridge Drive • Columbia, SC 29211 • www.systemtec.net Total number of local employees: 130 Top local executive: We have two owners in equal partnership, both in Columbia headquarters: Steve Bryant, CEO and Paul Elias, president.

Product or service: Information technology and health care information technology consulting services Year founded locally: 1998 Company bio: Since 1998, SYSTEMTEC has been providing professional technical consulting services to large and small organizations, across private and public sectors, and to vertical markets including health care, product engineering, government, financial services, energy, manufacturing and distribution. Our expertise includes project and program management, business analysis, application development and integration, custom application build, package application integration, application maintenance and support, quality assurance and software testing, infrastructure maintenance and many other areas.

19

Infinity Marketing 874 S. Pleasantburg Drive, Suite A • Greenville, SC 29607 www.infinitymkt.com Total number of local employees: 57 Top local executive: Tony Williams Product or service: Media planning and placement, creative and production, interactive applications, DJ endorsements, full-service marketing and advertising, turnkey solutions Year founded locally: 1993 Company bio: Founded in 1993, Infinity Marketing is a full-service marketing agency offering media planning and buying, production and creative customization solutions, and interactive applications. Infinity primarily supports consumer-driven clients concentrated in either local business or multimarket operations throughout the country.

What major changes has your company experienced in the past year?

Infinity Marketing has experienced tremendous growth and excellent performance in 2013, helping longtime clients with major campaigns.

Roaring twenties Winners: Large Companies

Photos from the event

www.scbizmag.com

39

Contents 4

About this publication

5

Welcome from our partners

8

Upfront

18 smart Food Waste

South Carolina has miles

to go in food waste composting Photo/Charleston County

14

22 smart Economics

Recycling businesses’ impact makes South Carolina a leader

Profiles: Special Advertising Section

smart Governments

26

Counties use education and innovation to increase recycling

34 smart Construction

Construction and demolition recycling

Recycling is smart for economic and environmental reasons. Some S.C. counties, with a couple of decades of recycling under their belt, are finding new ways to boost participation and expand to things never recycled before.

38 smart Women

Women entrepreneurs find

their niche in recycling 41 smart Zero

Helping companies reach

goal of zero waste to landfill 44 smart Resources

• S.C. Recycling Market Development Advisory Council

• RecyclonomicsSC Executive Committee • Resources

• Recycling help online

• RecyclonomicsSC Members

www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

3

About this Publication

M

any of us can remember when recycling meant saving our soft drink cans and taking them to the recycling center way out in an industrial area. My next door neighbor saved her cans for me and I would be thankful to get a couple of dollars, enough then to buy a fastfood lunch.

But what a difference a few decades make! The variety and number of items that can be recycled keep exploding, and the companies providing markets for those items are right here ready to take them and turn them into something useful.

It is simply mind-boggling that some of our state’s major

Licia Jackson Editor

corporations now send none of their trash to the landfill.

South Carolina is a leader in recycling growth and innovation. You’ll be amazed to read in this second issue of

RecyclonomicsSC about all that’s going on here.

My neighborhood, as many of yours, recently received the full-size recycling roll-out containers from our garbage service, allowing us to recycle many more items. I’m finding that the amount of trash we put into the actual garbage cart has gone way down. And that’s the way it should be!.

I

RecyclonomicsSC Magazine Editor - Licia Jackson ljackson@scbiznews.com Creative Director - Ryan Wilcox rwilcox@scbiznews.com Senior Graphic Designer - Jane Mattingly jmattingly@scbiznews.com Graphic Designer - Andrew Sprague asprague@scbiznews.com Account executives Director of Business Development - Mark Wright mwright@scbiznews.com Account Executive - Reneé Piontek rpiontek@scbiznews.com • 843.849.3105 Senior Account Executive - Robert Reilly rreilly@scbiznews.com Account Executive - Bennett Parks bparks@scbiznews.com Contributing Writers Mary Jane Benston, Holly Fisher, Allison Cooke Oliverius Contributing Photographers Darrell Snow President and Group Publisher - Grady Johnson gjohnson@scbiznews.com Vice President of Sales - Steve Fields sfields@scbiznews.com

n economic development, there are three general ways to create jobs: recruitment of outside industry, fostering

of start-up businesses, and growth/retention of existing companies. New Carolina — South Carolina’s Council on Competitiveness, focuses on the latter. We identify core industries where South Carolina already has an economic advantage and critical mass, and we help them to grow through cluster development. Cluster

Director of Audience Development - Rick Jenkins rjenkins@scbiznews.com Event Manager - Kathy Allen kallen@scbiznews.com Audience Development & IT Manager - Kim McManus kmcmanus@scbiznews.com Audience Development Specialist - Jessica Smalley jsmalley@scbiznews.com Special Projects Assistant - Melissa Verzaal mverzaal@scbiznews.com

development increases productivity through competition, builds trust through

Event Planner - Jacquelyn Fehler jfehler@scbiznews.com

collaboration, and increases access to shared resources such as skilled workforce

Accounting Manager - Vickie Deadmon vdeadmon@scbiznews.com

and improved infrastructure.

To organize a cluster, New Carolina convenes the top industry stakeholders and works to facilitate a vision for the industry. With the industry, we develop a plan to overcome obstacles for that vision enabling the cluster members to achieve more together than they can alone. We design solutions that make our companies more competitive in their industry by staying in South Carolina.

Some of our key industries and their New Carolina initiated clusters are transportation, distribution and logistics, The TDL Council; the nuclear sector, Carolinas’ Nuclear Cluster; insurance technology and services, ITs|SC, Columbia’s Insurance and Technology Services Cluster; and the recycling sector — RecyclonomicsSC. New Carolina is very excited about the opportunities for growth and impact

The entire contents of this publication are c­ opyright by SC Business Publications LLC with all rights reserved. Any reproduction or use of the content within this p ­ ublication without permission is prohibited. SCBIZ and South Carolina’s Media Engine for Economic Growth are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Mailing address: 1439 Stuart Engals Blvd., Suite 200 Mount Pleasant, SC 29464 Phone: 843.849.3100 • Fax: 843.849.3122 www.scbiznews.com SC Business Publications LLC A portfolio company of Virginia Capital Partners LLC Frederick L. Russell Jr., Chairman

with the recycling cluster. This is a dynamic group of innovative people working in a very important industry with global implications. We are increasing our expectations for recycling participation without overburdening our citizens. As we say at RecyclonomicsSC — Small Changes, Big Returns.

4

www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

Corporate & Commercial Publishing Division

S.C. Recycling Update

S

outh Carolina continues to prove it is just right for companies

looking to go green. With more than 500 recycling

“Arrive at 75”: a lofty goal for South Carolina

T

he S.C. Department of Commerce along with regional and

local economic develop-

companies calling the state home and an estimated 21,000

ment professionals does a

jobs created by this sector, the Pal-

remarkable job of attracting

metto State is a leader in the nation in

industry to our state. But after the initial capital is invest-

recycling-related industry growth.

ed and the jobs are created, what can be done to ensure companies stay here and grow here?

In the past three years, the state

Bobby Hitt

S.C. Secretary of Commerce

has announced more than $1 billion

Every industry benefits from

in investment and created more than

collaboration to develop long-term

2,700 jobs in the recycling industry.

sustainability. Economic incentives

And as the state’s recycling businesses

attract initial investments, but many

continue to expand and find success

factors determine whether an indus-

here, and as new companies choose

try will thrive, such as access to a

South Carolina, we are well-positioned

skilled workforce and top-tier research

to support and promote this industry.

universities.

The unprecedented growth in the state’s recycling sector proves we are on the right track: •

•

In 2012, the recycling industry announced $463 mil-

Executive Director New Carolina

New Carolina identifies industry “clusters” in South Carolina that have a comparative advantage nationally.

We organize, build collaboration, de-

lion in capital investment, a creation of more than

velop growth strategies and increase access to shared re-

770 jobs with 19 new or existing companies.

sources. Being a part of New Carolina provides opportunity

Whether small or large, urban or rural, businesses

for clusters to collaborate where their interests intersect,

in the Palmetto State are leading the way in sus-

such as RecyclonomicsSC.

tainability – eliminating landfill waste and forming •

Laura McKinney

RecyclonomicsSC acts as a resource for companies in

successful green partnerships within the state.

the recycling industry, which helps increase their econom-

Local governments, businesses and recyclers alike

ic impact. RecyclonomicsSC has facilitated an increase in

have access to an abundance of recycling markets,

capital investments by new and existing recycling compa-

with interstates, ports and railways nearby.

nies in South Carolina by 30%.

There is still opportunity for growth. South Carolina

Recycling and responsible material management make

recycled only 29.5% of municipal solid waste (MSW) in 2012

a difference. Recycling ensures these materials will make

— one of the lowest rates in the country. RecyclonomicsSC

their way to recyclers close by. The benefit is direct – com-

has challenged South Carolina to “Arrive at 75” — 75% re-

panies grow, resulting in more local jobs and tax revenues.

cycling of MSW by the year 2030.That 75% goal could mean

Our green state of mind is further demonstrated by Commerce’s Recycling Market Development Advisory

20,000 more jobs and millions more in capital investments.

RecyclonomicsSC is also preparing policy options that

Council and staff’s efforts to attract and develop business-

would help South Carolina achieve 75% recycling of MSW.

es. With announcements in 2013 such as WasteZero and

These options will be shared with legislators on Jan. 15,

Palmetto Synthetics in Williamsburg County, JN Fibers in

2014, at the RecyclonomicsSC annual legislative day.

Chester County and Recleim in Aiken, Commerce supports growth of the recycling sector.

From entrepreneurs providing new recycling options to

Our team at New Carolina is excited to continue facilitating the collaboration of recyclers through RecylonomicsSC. We look forward to building membership in the

flagship companies converting recyclables, our recycling in-

cluster and collaborating across our other clusters to Arrive

dustry is leading the way in the green economy and proving

at 75 by 2030. As the recycling industry grows and prospers

that in our state, money does in fact grow on trees.

in South Carolina, so does our economy as a whole. www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

5

Harvesting the fruits of a higher rate of recycling

R

ecycle. The word itself is self-explanatory: cycle materials again and again. Recycling is the opportunity to do the right thing, be efficient, be sustainable,

contribute to the community, save energy, avoid the landfill, cut costs, create jobs and support economic growth, “again and again.”

That’s where RecyclonomicsSC

While the potential “fruit” from growth is there, there’s

comes in. RecyclonomicsSC is an

still a lot of “picking” to be done. The recycling industry

initiative of the S.C. Recycling Coun-

subsists essentially on the voluntary actions of consum-

cil and New Carolina focused on the

ers and businesses: plastic bottles, cardboard, aluminum,

recovery of recyclable material for

manufacturing materials, fibers, and many other recyclable

industry growth in our state. We are a

materials must be recovered and make it into a recycling

group of energetic people from around the state that is made up of small, medium and large recycling companies,

Tina Green Huskey

RecyclonomicsSC

panies to recycle recoverable or reusable materials.

cycling, with a shared vision to make

There are 500 recycling companies in South Carolina

South Carolina a national leader of

that are “going out on a limb” and are dependent on the collection of cans, bottles, paper, packaging containers,

creation, investment and providing sustainable markets

industrial scrap and other materials to process and reuse

for recyclable materials.

or return to the marketplace as feedstock for the produc-

Earlier this year, RecyclonomicsSC launched our “Arrive

tion of new items.

at 75%” campaign, which aims to bring our current recy-

Due to education and corporate mandates, there are

cling rate of about 30% to 75% by 2020.

many people who diligently recycle. We are very grateful for these folks because whether they know it or not, by

“Why not go out on a limb? That’s where the fruit is.”

placing their bottle or can in the recycling bin, they’re not

­‑ Will Rogers

only supporting a greener South Carolina — they’re supporting an industry that has huge economic ramifications

Are we going out on a limb with “Arrive at 75”? Maybe so

for our state.

but that is where the “fruit” is. So, what is that fruit?

RecyclonomicsSC’s goal requires us to want more and

From 2006 to 2012, South Carolina’s recycling industry

do more, and for that we are unapologetic. We encourage

announced more than $4.49 billion in investments and the

you all to “go out on a limb” with us and do your part to

creation of more than 6,900 jobs. Take a look at how we

• •

6

“Arrive at 75.” Making one small change today can lead to a huge change tomorrow for a greener South Carolina!

770 recycling jobs were added, bringing the total to

Tina Green Huskey, Chair

over 20,000

RecyclonomicsSC, an initiative of the

$463 million in capital was invested in our state

South Carolina Recycling Council

through 19 new or existing companies •

mental impact. Currently, in South Carolina, there is no legislation or regulations that encourage residents or com-

municipalities and supporters of re-

the recycling industry in terms of job

grew in 2012 alone:

program in order for there to be an economic or environ-

Investments were up nearly 30% from 2011

www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

Upfr nt 500

21,000

number of recycling related

number of jobs provided by these businesses

businesses in South Carolina

$4 billion recycling industry investment in S.C. since 2006 Source: S.C. Department of Commerce

325,183,632 S.C.’s recycling efforts in 2012 resulted in an environmental impact equivalent to conserving this many gallons of gasoline

12,463

434,227

S.C.’s recycling in 2012 was equivalent to conserving this many railcars of coal

S.C.’s recycling in 2012 was equivalent of eliminating emission from electricity use of this many homes

Source: S.C. Solid Waste Management Annual Report

8

www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

Upfr nt

Thrift stores reveal recycling secrets

M

aybe you’ve dashed into your local thrift store

sumption habits. The project promotes a healthy consumer

to look for items for a Halloween costume. Or

product cycle that encompasses saving natural resources,

if you’re a hard-core thrifter, you might have

energy and money by purchasing used goods.

scored some real finds: a designer jacket or an antique sewing machine.

Isaacson partnered with Goodwill for her most recent tour de thrifts, which stretched from Albany, N.Y., to

But have you ever considered what a thrift store says

Savannah, Ga. This time she drove a hybrid vehicle, but

about its community and its commitment to recycling and

her first such trip involved an RV and visits to thrift stores

reusing its cast-offs? Jenna Isaacson has turned her thrift-

across the country. The first trip was funded with help

store interest into a nationwide docu-

from Kickstarter, an online fundraising

mentary project, “All Thrifty States:

tool.

A Visual Journey through America’s

Part of the fun is meeting folks shop-

Collective Closets.”

ping or working in the thrift stores, she

And along the way – a long way,

said. “I take fun pictures and get people

as it turns out – she is promoting the

to make it fun.” At the James Island

win-win aspects of secondhand shop-

store, she met a gentleman shopper

ping. It’s a win for the shopper: cool

who was initiating his girlfriend into

stuff for dozens of dollars off retail.

the joys of thrifting. The photos are

It’s a win for the donor: tax writeoff

posted on her web site, www.allthriftys-

as well as cleaner closets. It’s a win for

tates.com, with her blog.

thrift stores, especially Goodwill, as it

At two Charleston area thrifts, she

provides merchandise and helps train

noted lots of cute floral dresses, polo-

their workers.

collared shirts and golf clubs, but,

And the biggest winner of all may

alas, not the Cheerwine T-shirt she

be the environment: All those cast-off goods stay out of the landfill and find homes where they can be put to good use.

was seeking. nced thrifter, shops for Jenna Isaacson, experie nd Goodwill store.

Isla T-shirts at the James

“You can buy just as good stuff sec-

South Carolina as part of a month-long tour of 48 thrift

the Washington, D.C., area, started going to thrift stores as a child with her grandfather. Buying secondhand

ondhand,” said Isaacson, who visited the James Island Goodwill store last spring on her visit to

Isaacson, who has a new job in

continued, “definitely in college with my first apartment, looking for furniture,” she said.

During the recession, many turned to thrift stores –

stores in the eastern half of the country. “It takes a bit of

as Isaacson did when she was unemployed. “It started

patience and some time.”

because of the recession. They might not have to do it

When Isaacson, a photographer, was laid off from her

anymore but they found out they liked it,” Isaacson said.

newspaper job, she began “All Thrifty States” as a docu-

“I’ve noticed a lot nicer cars in the parking lot and some

mentary project to educate and change Americans’ con-

fresh faces.”

10

www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

Upfr nt

Tips for thrifting

By Jenna Isaacson, allthriftystates.com

• If a thrift store is located in a strip mall with businesses geared toward other cultures, it’s probably a good one.

• My method is fabric, tag, size, condition: FTSC. Look for a fabric you like, then check the tag, size and condition.

• Be aware of discount days and sales at your local stores.

Some offer a discount on certain days, certain items, certain tag colors or offer VIP cards to save all the time.

• Try on everything if at all possible. Stains, holes, missing buttons and broken zippers are common candidates for the donation pile. If you have sewing skills to fix them, even better!

• Take a buddy — or better yet, a SIZE buddy — and look for stuff you’d see the other person wearing as well as yourself and have them do the same. Double trouble, half the time!

• Don’t be afraid to look at linens, appliances and other items. There are a lot of hidden gems, and stores often pre-check items or offer a place to plug things in to try them out.

• See that rack getting wheeled out of the back? That’s a batch of fresh donations about to be filed into the racks you’ve been sifting through. Start here! It’s your best bet for greatness in a short amount of time.

• College towns are a great place to thrift. With students constantly moving, changing styles, gaining and losing weight, they’re a great place to find great stuff in a great variety of sizes.

• Looking for vintage stuff? Go where the old people are!

When I lived in Florida, it was vintage thrifting heaven!

Gorgeous vintage glassware, dresses, I even found pieces of great ‘50s and ‘60s print fabric in pristine condition.

Source: www.allthriftystates.com

www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

11

Upfr nt

Hospitality recycling is all about making things easy If you want tourists who visit your community to recycle, you have to make it easy for them.

Following through on that simple truth is paying divi-

S.C.’s Green Hospitality Alliance Drunken Jack’s is among more than 60 participants in the Green Hospitality Alliance, a program of the S.C.

dends for some of South Carolina’s beachside communi-

Restaurant and Lodging Association and the S.C. Depart-

ties. Hilton Head Island began beach recycling in 2007, and

ment of Health and Environmental Control Office of Solid

Surfside Beach has added recycling receptacles at 33 beach

Waste Reduction and Recycling. The alliance helps hotels,

access points, as well as parks and tennis courts.

restaurants and other hospitality facilities adopt sustain-

“It’s the responsible thing to do for a beach community,” said John Adair, director of public works for Surfside Beach.

able practices.

“We help them start

or grow their recycling,” said

The community’s population

Anne McGovern of the Office

grows tenfold in the sum-

of Solid Waste Reduction

mer, and 40 tons of bottles,

and Recycling. The alli-

cans and paper have been

ance also works with Parks,

recycled in the past three

Recreation and Tourism to

years.

promote hotels, motels and

Hilton Head not only

restaurants with the Green

provides recycling containers

Hospitality certification.

at the beach, but also encour-

Each participant re-

ages visitors to ask their rental

ceives from one to three

agents about onsite recycling,

palmetto trees, depend-

said Sally Krebs, sustainable

ing on their level of green

practices coordinator for the

practices. These include

town of Hilton Head Island.

recycling, but extend to

Recyclables can always be

energy use, education,

taken to a convenience center,

purchasing practices and

but many times a container is

materials for furnishings.

nearby.

A sticker with the member’s green palmetto rating can be

Restaurants and bars can also join in on hospitality

placed in the window. The first round of certifications was

recycling, as it is known. Drunken Jack’s Restaurant and

in 2009, and about half the members have recertified at a

Lounge in Murrell’s Inlet recycles its glass, aluminum and

higher rating, McGovern said.

cardboard as well as oyster shells. The establishment has recycling containers outside the building, behind the bar and in the kitchen, said Somer Heise, who works in human resources. Drunken Jack’s has saved money by reducing dumpster pickups, and employees have taken the recycling habit home. The restaurant even recycles its food waste by feeding it to pet goats.

12

www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

Upfr nt

2013 Recycling Related Economic Development Announcements Company

Investment

No. jobs

County

Recleim

$40,600,000 200

Aiken

Ice Recycling

$1,050,000

15

Florence

Palmetto Synthetics

$1,100,000

20

Williamsburg

$45,000,000

318

Chester

DLS Retreading

$2,500,000

53

Lancaster

Advanta Southeast, LLC

$3,500,000

30

Clarendon

Prime Materials Recovery

$1,200,000

20

Orangeburg

Waste Zero

$3,100,000

27

Williamsburg

JN Fibers, Inc.

Source: S.C. Department of Commerce

www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

13

smart Governments

smart Governments

Counties use education and innovation to increase recycling

By Mary Jane Benston

W

ith a couple of decades of recycling behind

phase-in of the carts, participation doubled and volume

them, some South Carolina counties are think-

more than doubled, according to Christina Moskos, recy-

ing outside of the bin. By offering residents

cling coordinator for Charleston County Environmental

more convenient ways to recycle and more information

Management. The all-in-one carts have simplified recy-

about why they should, counties are pump-

cling, which under the old system has re-

ing up participation and collections. They

quired residents to separate materials into

are burying less stuff in landfills and finding beneficial – and sometimes profitable – new uses for waste.

While city-dwellers have grown used to having recyclables picked up at the curb, practices vary widely out in the suburbs and rural areas. Some counties award franchises to companies for waste collection in

“If they recycle it, we actually get paid for it, so it keeps our taxes from going up.”

Louise Ponder deputy director for public works, Pickens County

two bins – one for paper and cardboard, and another for cans and bottles. Making recycling easier “made a light come on in a lot of residents’ heads,” Moskos said.

The county serves 115,000 single-family households, all of which will have carts eventually. Convenience centers offer options for residents in far reaches of the

unincorporated areas; some counties run

county where curbside collection is not

their own collection services. Many South

available.

Carolinians who live in rural areas must take trash and recyclables to “convenience centers.”

Charleston County is among local governments that

Charleston was the first county to receive a state permit for commercial food waste composting. Partnered haulers collect food from restaurants and other establishments

are increasing curbside recycling by switching from bins

and bring it to the Charleston County Bees Ferry Compost

to 95-gallon roll carts. In a pilot program that preceded the

Facility. It is mixed with yard waste to produce nutrient-

14

www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

smart Governments

Food waste is mixed with yard waste to produce nutrient-rich compost at Charleston County’s Bees Ferry Compost Facility.

(Photo/Charleston County)

rich compost, which is sold to end-users including resi-

entities, the county is concentrating on some troublesome

dents, landscapers and golf courses.

waste streams: fats, oils and greases (FOG); yard waste

By composting 100% of incoming yard waste, Charles-

or wood waste; and biosolids or sludge from wastewater

ton avoids the expense of burying it in landfills. Some yard

treatment. The end products can include something as

waste is ground and used to cover the landfill, to keep

ordinary as compost or something as unusual as algae.

animals out. That alternative daily cover takes the place of

“I think that we’re doing more innovative things than

soil that the county would otherwise need to purchase and

any other place in South Carolina,” said Colin Martin,

truck in.

Berkeley County Water & Sanitation’s executive director.

In nearby Berkeley County, finding beneficial uses for

One partner will produce nutritious compost that will

waste is driving several bold programs that are either

incorporate wood waste, biosolids and some FOG. Another

under way or in the works. In partnership with private

company uses waste products in an anaerobic digestion

www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

15

smart Governments operation to create methane gas, which becomes fuel to produce electricity.

Yet another company will separate metal and plastic from garbage. The metals will be sold in the recycling market, and the plastic will end up as a fuel additive in the heavy fuels market. About 24 percent of the household waste in Berkeley County is either metal or plastic, Martin said.

As for the algae, that’s part of a one-year test. Algae can be used in products including livestock food and fuel. In the test facility, materials — including some “nutritious but nasty stuff” from the landfill and wastewater plant — will be mixed in tanks and checked to “see how the algae react to it.” Martin hopes the tests will lead to development of a full-scale plant.

“We just think that there’s real advantage to bringing the waste products and the technology and the economic ventures together,” Martin said.

In Pickens County, waste management is not as hightech, but it produces a stellar recycling rate. Residents of the unincorporated areas must take their trash and recyclables to collection stations. Last year the county recycled about 38% of its waste, said Louise Ponder, deputy director for public works.

Ponder said education boosts participation. The county regularly presents its recycling message to third-graders, high-schoolers, civic organizations, churches and women’s groups. Tours are offered.

“I think people are more aware now of what recycling really is. I was amazed when I first started going out to groups and speaking to them how little they knew what the purpose of recycling was,” Ponder said. Speakers explain not only the need to preserve natural resources, but also the economic benefits. It costs money to get rid of trash, while “if they recycle it, we actually get paid for it, so it keeps our taxes from going up.”

Pickens County spent around $850,000 last year putting its household trash in a landfill, while it made about $770,000 on its recycling operation.

The state assists recycling programs through the OfTop photo, a Santee Cooper generator uses methane gas from the Berkeley County landfill to produce electricity. A Charleston Water System truck, bottom photo, delivers wastewater treatment plant biosolids to the solids feeder at the GenEarth facility in Berkeley County.

The bio-solids are processed with other organic materials in an anaerobic digester, and the resulting biogas fuels a 1.6 megawatt generator to produce electricity that is sold to Santee Cooper.

(Photos/Santee Cooper, GenEarth)

fice of Solid Waste Reduction and Recycling, a part of the Department of Health and Environmental Control. The aid includes technical assistance, education/awareness programs, and grants.

Charleston County, for instance, recently received grants to promote recycling of tires and oil. Moskos said the state office is a great resource for information on what other counties are doing.

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smart Governments

Commercial food waste is tipped at the Bees Ferry Compost Facility in Charleston County. (Photo/Charleston County)

“One advantage about being in a small state is we know everybody and kind of know what’s going on,” said Richard Chesley, a manager in the state recycling office.

Pickens County has used the state aid to give recycling bins to residents, to put advertising on vehicles and to place tanks at recycling stations to collect used oil. Without the state’s help, “I don’t know how much we could have been doing,” Ponder said.

An automated truck picks up recyclables. (Photo/Charleston County)

www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

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smart Food Waste

South Carolina has miles to go in food waste composting

By Holly Fisher

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smart Food Waste

A

t the University of South Carolina, students run

Environmental Control approved the county’s request for

a small composting program, collecting food

a 12-month food waste composting pilot program. During

scraps from the major dining facilities on campus.

the one-year trial, more than 1,800 tons of food waste was

Six days a week, they collect half a ton of pre-consumer,

composted. In June 2012, Charleston County received an

organic food waste and run it through their composting

operating permit to process food waste.

program.

Over the last year, they diverted more than 400 tons of

Food Waste Disposal is one Charleston area company going from business to business to collect food waste and

food waste from the garbage and into campus gardens.

haul it to the county composting facility. Since he started

Larry Cook, recycling coordinator in USC’s facilities de-

the business two years ago, it has grown significantly, said

partment, said it’s a neat demonstration program for the

Wayne Koeckeritz. Food Waste Disposal works with the

students but he wishes they could do more.

Charleston County School District, local hospitals, colleges

“It’s not really making a significant dent in waste management and our goals to achieve higher levels of waste diversion and zero waste,” he said.

The roadblock for USC – and much of the state – is the

and private businesses.

Since the company’s inception, Koeckeritz has moved more than 3.6 million pounds of food waste. He recently upgraded from a modified garbage truck to a new truck

lack of permitted facilities that accept food waste. Current-

better equipped for collecting food waste. He has also ex-

ly there’s only one such location in the entire state, and it’s

panded into selling compostable products like bowls, cups

in Charleston County at the Bees Ferry Compost Facility.

and plates for restaurants that want to take their recycling

In September 2010, the S.C. Department of Health and

efforts one more step.

At left, the temperature of composting food waste is monitored. At top, discarded food is dumped at Charleston County’s Bees Ferry Compost Facility. Photos/Refresh Services, Charleston County

www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

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smart Food Waste

For a business like Food Waste Disposal, the key to success is the Charleston County composting facility. “Without that facility, this company does not exist,” Koeckeritz said.

Not having a permitted composting site presents a real challenge for other areas of the state eager to turn their food waste into compost rather than garbage. USC’s Cook is ready to see the market grow in Columbia and hopes a compost facility like the one in Charleston will develop soon.

“I do hope it’s a movement that will get to us in the relatively short term,” Cook said. “I hope that USC will be at the forefront of that. Our student body is interested and it will go a long way in diverting a lot of material from the landfill that has value.”

Bridging the gap In the meantime, other companies are stepping up to offer on-site composting solutions for businesses eager to recycle food waste.

Refresh Services offers in-vessel composting containers that businesses can place on their property. By composting on-site, it eliminates the need for trucks to haul the waste to another facility, noted operator Clay Atkins.

The concept is similar to what an individual might set up in the back yard, but on a larger scale, Atkins explained.

Refresh provides the container and once a week churns the compostable materials to facilitate the breakdown.

Once the materials have broken down, the crew removes the compost and businesses can use it for landscaping projects.

Although based in Columbia, Refresh has found a broader market in the Upstate and is working with companies like BMW and Greenville Memorial Hospital.

Also bringing composting alternatives to businesses is Greenville-based Divergent Energy, which dehydrates and grinds food waste on site.

The company works with businesses to assess their entire waste system and determine the best methods to keep waste out of the landfills, said Scott Harke, director of business development at Divergent Energy.

Divergent Energy’s in-vessel system grinds and dehydrates food waste while also capturing the water from

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smart Food Waste

Refresh Services provides its customers with on-site composting containers. The end product can be used for landscaping.

Photo/Refresh Services

dehydration. The water can be used for irrigation, and the compost can be used as a soil amendment or pelletized and used as a fuel source, Harke explained.

The machine can handle 125 to 4,500 pounds a day, so it’s appropriate for schools, large restaurants or a large food processing company, he said. Divergent Energy has been working with a culinary school in Charlotte, which generates 50,000 pounds of food waste a year.

Harke calls it a “more elegant solution for food waste,” which is a significant problem nationwide. He noted that an average family throws out $2,200 worth of food each year.

“It really is almost criminal how wasteful we are,” he said.

www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

21

smart Economics

Recycling businesses’ impact makes South Carolina a leader

By Mary Jane Benston

R

ecycling has always been about protecting South

An estimated 21,000 S.C. jobs are linked to the recycling

Carolina’s environment. Now it’s also about boost-

industry. The state’s count of recycling-related businesses

ing the economy.

includes collectors, haulers, processors, brokers, end-users

For 20 years proponents have worked not only to pro-

and recycling equipment manufacturers. “Many of the

mote recycling, but also to develop markets

end-users, such as Sonoco, Nucor and JW

so businesses and governments can cash

Aluminum, are large-scale enterprises that

in on the materials that they divert from landfills.

“Through the efforts of green-minded companies like BMW and Sonoco, along with the approximately 500 recycling businesses calling South Carolina home, our state is emerging as a leader in the nation’s recycling industry,” said Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt. “In the past three years, the state has announced more than $1 bil-

“In the past three years, the state has announced more than $1 billion in investment and created more than 2,700 jobs in the recycling industry.”

are significant employers in the state,” the

Bobby Hitt Secretary of Commerce

provides a less expensive way to increase

lion in investment and created more than 2,700 jobs in the recycling industry. This shows the state’s commitment to supporting this sector and our effort to produce a green state of mind in South Carolina.”

Commerce Department said.

“South Carolina’s recycling industry provides materials for robust, efficient manufacturing in the state. By taking advantage of the increasing supplies and products collected in business and community recycling programs, recycling production while contributing to the state’s economy,” Hitt said.

Recycling benefits everyone because

getting rid of trash is expensive.

Disposal of more than 2.9 million tons of waste cost more than $111 million in tipping fees during fiscal 2012,

Employees sort recycled materials at Sonoco Recycling in Greenville.

(Photo/Darrell Snow)

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smart Economics

23

smart Economics according to state government’s annual report on solid

Building recycling markets The South Carolina Department of Commerce’s

waste management. Meanwhile, recycling more than 1.2 million tons of trash saved nearly $47 million in avoided disposal costs, and local governments reported earning about $13 million from the sale of recyclables.

Still, South Carolinians send more than 70 percent of their trash to landfills. The state wants to recycle at least

Recycling Market Development Advisory Council

40 percent of its trash by 2020. The Commerce Department

works to develop and recruit end-users for

says, “As more material is recovered from residential, com-

recyclables. Here are companies that have invested in South Carolina.

mercial, institutional and industrial sectors, it bolsters the recycling industry’s long-term growth that lends economic stability to the state.”

The industry’s economic effects are felt not only in the

Paper

population centers but also in rural corners of the state.

2,800 tons per day of paper is consumed in South Carolina paper mills • Caraustar • RockTenn

• KapStone • Sonoco

Businesses such as Mumford Industries Inc. in Ninety Six (population 1,998) and E-Z Products LLC in Cheraw (population 5,851) are thriving in recycling.

Mumford employs 17 to 20 people and recycled about 16 mil-

Plastic

lion pounds of material

1,100 tons per day capacity in North and South Carolina for PET/HDPE • Wellman Plastics Recycling • NURRC • US Fibers

• PolyQuest • Poole Company • E-Z Products

last year, according to George Mumford, president. “We grow every year, either through pounds or through sales volume.”

“We grow every year, either through pounds or through sales volume.”

George Mumford president, Mumford Industries Inc.

For companies in rural areas, real estate

Metals

usually costs less, Mumford said. Because recycling is

5.4 million tons total annual demand

S.C. steel mills

Aluminum mill

16,000 tons per day consumed in four steel mills • Nucor — Huger and Darlington • CMC • ArcelorMittal

300-350 tons per day consumed • JW Aluminum

labor-intensive, it’s also good to have a ready workforce to pull from. Local economic alliances are helpful, and “you’re not lost in a large sea,” he said.

Mumford is strategically situated between Columbia and Greenville. “We’re close enough that we can provide recycling to our customers in the larger areas.” And Charleston’s port adds potential for international business.

Housed in a refurbished textile mill, Mumford Industries is a plus for Ninety Six. “We have a tremendous amount of truck drivers and our employees and everybody who

Glass 575 tons per day processed in the Carolinas

comes in and out of here, so they’re buying gas and fuel, and it absolutely has a positive impact,” Mumford said.

The company was heavily involved with textiles when

17,000 tons per month of post-consumer and post-industrial

it began in 1995. Today it serves the automotive, medical,

Annual demand of 210,000 tons

recycling packages” to help customers reduce waste and

Source: S.C. Department of Commerce

construction and packaging industries, offering “complete become more efficient.

In the Pee Dee, E-Z Products employs 28 people and can process 3 million pounds of plastic bottles a month, CEO

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smart Economics Phillip McElveen said.

E-Z has traveled a rough road. McElveen said he started up his wash line “at just the worst time possible.” Like many businesses, E-Z was in dire straits in 2008 and 2009.

The market for plastic bottles had plummeted.

Lost Opportunities What happens when South Carolinians don’t recycle

“Anyway, we got through all that, and now we’re running well,” McElveen said. Although business has been good since 2010, E-Z is proceeding cautiously. It operates mostly on a toll basis, with other companies paying to have materials tested, washed and tested again.

E-Z washes beverage bottles that have been ground into flakes. Because bottles, caps and labels are made of different kinds of plastics, flakes separate in the process – sinking or floating depending on type of plastic. The reclaimed materials can be used in new products.

McElveen appreciates his small community. “You know all the people here,” he said, and he’s not just talking about the several family members who work with him. Mechanics and a warehouse employee have been at E-Z since the wash line was installed in 2007, or before. Among upperlevel employees, “we don’t have any turnover.” Cheraw has residents “needing to work,” he said.

348,000 tons of recyclable municipal solid waste sent to landfills in 2012

$12.5 million in unnecessary disposal fees in 2012

$47 million in lost revenue for local governments in 2012

$216.5 million total net loss over three years (2010-2012) Source: S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control

www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

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Special Advertising Section

Special Advertising Section

www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

27

Charleston Steel and Metal

I

n 1893, when Charleston Steel and Metal first

recycling facility in North Charleston. This new facility

opened in Samuel Steinberg’s back yard on King

strategically stationed machinery for an unimpeded

Street, customers brought their metals to him in

workflow. It’s chaos to the naked eye, but structured to

horse-drawn wagons. One hundred twenty years later,

make as many things happen in unison in the space

CSM’s fleet of trucks pick up and deliver customers’

allowed.

metals for processing and transportation to the vari-

In 2013 CSM opened two additional satellite loca-

ous mills in the Southeast. Charleston Steel remains

tions, in Ravenel and on Highway 176, to offer our

family owned and operated, and this year welcomed

customers even more choices for delivery.

Jonathan Steinberg onboard representing the fourth

Charleston Steel and Metal strives to be the indus-

generation.

try’s “Standard.” CSM has shown the way for con-

As the city of Charleston evolved and grew, so did

structive leadership in the metal recycling industry.

Charleston Steel and Metal. In 1980, CSM purchased

We are represented by generations of workers who

property in Berkeley County and moved the salvage

aren’t afraid to “do the right thing.” CSM is proud of its

and usable materials operations to the new Mount

heritage and is an active participant and supporter of

Holly/Berkeley yard.

many charities in the communities we serve. Respon-

In 2008 Charleston Steel and Metal moved its

sible recycling, recyclonomics and Charleston Steel

“downtown” location to a state-of-the-art scrap metal

and Metal walk hand in hand.

2700 Spruill Ave • North Charleston, SC 29405 843-722-7278 • www.charlestonsteelandmetal.com

28

www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

Special Advertising Section

Special Advertising Section

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29

30

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Special Advertising Section

Special Advertising Section

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31

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Special Advertising Section

What makes our custom media services work for you?

We don’t just tell a story. We tell YOUR story.

From start to finish, our Custom Media team will manage all aspects of your custom publication.

We have the ability to deliver turnkey projects, including development of editorial content, photography, advertising sales, graphic design and distribution.

View samples of our custom publishing work at issuu.com/scbiz For information about custom publishing, call Mark Wright at 843.849.3143 Special Advertising Section

www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

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smart Construction

smart Construction

Construction and demolition recycling: How businesses are collecting and recycling construction waste and turning it into other products

By Allison Cooke Oliverius

A

bout 8,000 pounds of waste are typically thrown into the landfill during the construction of a 2,000-square-foot home, according to Sustainable Sources, an online green building resource.

Forbes.com reports just over 600,000 houses were built in 2012 in the U.S., down from 2.5 million units built during the housing boom in 2005.

When you multiply the typical amount of waste tossed into a landfill by the number of homes built, that equals a lot of construction material clogging up landfills, when so much of it can be reused or recycled.

One of the bulkiest and least biodegradable pieces of construction debris is carpet. About 5 billion pounds of carpet is thrown away each year, according to Bloomberg.com.

GreenBy3’s own office space is being upfitted by using recycled materials, such as wooden pallets.

Photo/Jorge Riano, GreenBy3

www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

35

smart Construction

A definition of DIRTT DIRTT, which stands for “Do It Right This Time,” is a method of construction using demountable systems that can be reconfigured without requiring demolition or tearing out. The systems do not use drywall or metal studs and are environmentally sustainable as well as easy to take down and reassemble.

DIRTT flooring systems can be easily reconfigured without major tearing out. Photo/Jorge Riano, GreenBy3

Wellman Plastics in Florence County is helping divert

“The automotive industry wants to introduce as much

used carpet from the landfills here in South Carolina and

recycled as possible back into their vehicles and we’re able

along the East Coast. It operates a 2 million-square-foot

to provide a product that’s equal to the virgin material.

facility in Johnsonville, where it recycles carpet and plastic bottles.

“We bring in used carpet that’s been taken out of homes/businesses. We have a process we use to convert it back into a product like engineering resin, which goes into the automotive industry,” said Glen Odom, vice president of Wellman Plastics.

Florence-based Wellman recycles nylon carpet products. They purchase materials from suppliers who collect used carpet from installers. Wellman’s patented process takes carpet through a method that reduces it to pellets. The product is then sold to companies that mold products for the automotive industry. Any leftover ma-

It meets their qualifications and it allows

“We bring in used carpet that’s been taken out of homes/ businesses. We have a process we use to convert it back into a product like engineering resin, which goes into the automotive industry.”

Glen Odom vice president, Wellman Plastics

terial from the recycling process is sent to a cement kiln and burned for fuel.

“The good news is that the carpet we are using was ma-

them to use the materials in applications such as manifold covers, fan shrouds, under hood applications where you need a heat resistant product. They can also use it as a marketing opportunity because they are helping the environment and using green products where possible.”

Companies like Wellman Plastics and MetalTech Systems are doing their best to educate clients, including those in the construction industry, about recycling options.

In addition to educating clients, Richard Howard, president and owner of MetalTech Sytems on Pawley’s Island, says making it easy for clients to recycle is key.

MetalTech Systems designs and builds construction debris recycling systems, as

well as single- and multi-stream recycling systems that

terial that was going to the landfills. Once it made it there,

are used at material recovery facilities. Their systems use a

it stayed there forever,” Odom said.

combination of automatic and manual sorting processes to

Instead, Wellman sells the recycled material to clients.

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separate materials.

smart Construction

For example, single-stream recycling bins –­ where all materials go into the same bin – have increased participation rates among residents and businesses. “When people had to sort their materials into separate bins, we had a low participation rate. But when you make it easier for them with single-stream recycling, the participation rates jump up,” Howard said.

The same is true for construction debris. The contents of a construction dumpster can be run through machines equipped with various vibrating conveyor belts that help sort materials. Manual separation is used in addition to the automatic system.

Once the materials are separated and bailed, they can then be sold back into the market. For example, concrete and shingles can be used as a roadbed material, and drywall can be recycled into textured wall sprays. Large items, such as reusable lumber and drywall, along with cabinets, lighting and other items, can be donated to organizations such as Habitat for Humanity for reuse in construction projects.

When it comes to deciding exactly what can be recycled from a construction site, Charleston-based GreenBy3 walks clients through the process. Owner Jorge Riano works as the client representative for commercial construction projects. Recent projects include PeopleMatter’s new headquarters on King Street in Charleston, and Biz611, a business incubator in Hendersonville, N.C. PeopleMatter’s project involved the renovation of a historic building that had burned at one time. Deconstruction of the building revealed beams ranging from 12 to 16 feet that were charred black.

“Because they were charred, nobody thought the wood

At top, recycled wood from its own building was used to make a conference table for PeopleMatter in Charleston. Charred wood makes a unique inlay. Bottom, reclaimed brick is used on the facade of the building for Biz611 in Hendersonville, N.C. Photos/Jorge Riano, Greenby3

was any good, but I knew there was something under

buildings reused in the new building include 9,000 bricks

there. I came up with the idea to use the wood for a confer-

used on the north-facing vertical green wall, iron railings

ence table for them,” Riano said. He collaborated with local

to create a bike rack and reclaimed doors made into desks.

wood craftsmen who helped design and construct a large

Other materials used in the Biz611 project that were

conference table, as well as a desk for PeopleMatter’s presi-

selected from GreenBy3’s own inventory of reclaimed

dent Nate Dapore, and a high-top table for a break room.

materials include office furniture, DIRTT raised floor and

When the beams were milled, the charred end pieces were

office walls, and sliding barn-style doors. Materials from

retained and used to create a one-of-a-kind inlay.

the deconstruction not used in Biz611 were taken by local

“This table has a story,” Riano said. “It’s supported by

companies and repurposed or recycled on local construc-

a steel structure on one leg. The table itself is about 400

tion projects. For example, some of the excess brick and

pounds and had to be brought up on a crane. It’s part of

block were crushed and used in road construction.

this building’s history and its future.”

In Hendersonville, N.C., Riano coordinated the decon-

“Everything we do is based on how we can help our clients and the environment by repurposing, whether in our

struction of two existing buildings and then the construc-

own business, our clients’ projects or in our community,”

tion of Biz611 in its place. Materials from the original

Riano said. www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

37

smart Women

Women entrepreneurs find their niche in recycling

By Holly Fisher

When a woman starts her own business, she usually adds a touch of creativity. That’s no less true for women who dedicate themselves to a recycling business. Here are the stories of three of them:

Elizabeth Garrison Former president and ecopreneur of Ever-Green Recycling

Garrison recently sold Ever-Green Recycling, but said in the time she owned the business, the idea of recycling has become more mainstream. “When I started the business,

Elizabeth Garrison has become a voice for recycling in

Ever-Green sometimes seemed to be the only company

Greenville. From regular speaking engagements to every-

that was reaching out to medium-sized companies to talk

day conversations about recycling practices, when people

about sustainability practices.”

see Garrison, they think about recycling. That passion for

In the last six years, companies have become more will-

recycling caused Garrison to start Ever-Green Recycling

ing to talk about recycling, and the overall concept of sus-

and fill a void in the Greenville market.

tainability has become more of a business norm, she said.

A commercial recycling company, Ever-Green Recycling

The green movement is not just about hugging trees

picks up bottles, cans, paper and cardboard on a regular

but also has business implications, Garrison noted. “It

basis ranging from five days a week to once a month. Gar-

makes practical sense for material management and waste

rison also has worked with companies of varying sizes to

reduction. The result is seen more and more often on the

develop and implement recycling programs.

bottom line.”

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smart Women

“When I started the business, Ever-Green sometimes seemed to be the only company that was reaching out to mediumsized companies to talk about sustainability practices.”

Elizabeth Garrison

Rebecca O’Brien Executive director/founding chair of The Sustainable Warehouse In construction and renovation projects, a lot of useful materials can end up in the garbage. Not so, if Rebecca O’Brien has anything to say about it. She founded The Sustainable Warehouse eight years ago to work with construction companies, industries, schools and individuals to keep usable materials out of the landfills.

“We’re a throwaway society, but maybe what you’re throwing away is good enough for someone else.”

Rebecca O’Brien

www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

39

smart Women

“Having successful recycling programs in all of South Carolina is a responsibility we hope to see more of our elected officials begin to take seriously.”

Nancy Ogburn

Nancy Ogburn Founder/owner/president of Tomato Palms LLC Five years ago Nancy Ogburn read an article about a homeless man who needed a place to recuperate after surgery. He told his social worker he would pick up aluminum cans to pay for an apartment she had found for him.

The article got Ogburn thinking about how many homeless people in her Midlands community could be helped if local businesses donated their aluminum cans.

Businesses liked the idea but also needed help recycling plastic, paper, glass and cardboard. The result was Tomato She decided to launch her venture as a nonprofit,

Palms LLC, which offers in-office and curbside recycling

finding people were more likely to recycle their items in

services to businesses in Columbia and surrounding areas.

exchange for a tax deduction. O’Brien can deconstruct a

The company donates a portion of the proceeds from

building and typically achieves a 70% reuse/recycle rate.

aluminum can sales to local community homeless shelters

The reusable materials are taken to her warehouse and

each year.

sold. The warehouse is open to the public – from home-

In its five years, Tomato Palms has kept more than 1

owners or builders looking for household goods to DIY

million pounds of material out of the landfills. “We are a

enthusiasts in search of their next project.

small business, but we are making a difference,” Ogburn

“There’s lot more value in our materials,” O’Brien said.

“We’re a throwaway society, but maybe what you’re throwing away is good enough for someone else.”

Working primarily in the Charleston area, O’Brien said

said.

Ogburn is working to educate the community about the importance of recycling and, along with other recycling industry leaders, is reaching out to state legislators on

she’s just touching the tip — but if she, along with a couple

implementing positive recycling legislation, which not only

of employees and a truck, can capture 5% of what would

helps the environment but also creates jobs.

be thrown away, that’s huge. “We’re doing something.

“Having successful recycling programs in all of South

Everyone says, ‘What can I do to make a difference?’ We’re

Carolina is a responsibility we hope to see more of our

making a difference.”

elected officials begin to take seriously,” she said.

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At the PGA’s Phoenix Open, ambassadors helped visitors learn where to recycle their trash. Photo/Waste Management

smart Zero

Businesses go for zero waste goal

By Allison Cooke Oliverius

W

aste Management is the largest environmental services company in the country. It has more

This goal is called zero waste to landfill. It involves embracing concepts beginning with reducing what you buy

than 20 million customers in

North America and has traditionally been a service provider for collecting and hauling solid waste. It has 269 active landfills, 297 transfer stations and more than 32,000 trucks on the road nationwide.

But in recent years, the company has decided to transition to a way of doing business that sends less waste to the landfill.

“Our company is hoping that within 10 years, we’ll send nothing to the landfill,” said Raymond Randall, managing principal for Waste Management’s Sustainability

and use in the first place, to figuring out

“Our company is hoping that within 10 years, we’ll send nothing to the landfill. We’re moving in a completely different direction than our competitors.”

Raymond Randall Waste Management’s Sustainability Services Division

Services Division. “We’re moving in a completely different direction than our competitors.”

ways to dispose of things so they can be used again, whether it’s recycled or composted.

“Is it possible? Yes. Absolutely,” Randall said.

Last year alone, the company recycled 10 million tons of aluminum, cardboard/paper, scrap metal, plastics, wood pallets and glass. That saved about 34.69 million cubic yards of landfill air space – about enough space to fulfill the municipal solid waste needs for 44.5 million people for a year.

A big part of the switch is making it easy for people to dispose of reusable materials properly. For example, Waste www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

41

smart Zero

“We provide data back to our customers about the materials they’ve recycled and the volume they’ve saved out of the landfill. Those are really important numbers because they feed the zero waste initiative.”

Tina Huskey Mumford Industries

derstanding of what they’re throwing away. It’s a key part of the benchmarking. Once you know what’s in your waste stream, you can figure out what to reduce, design differently, process differently and in the end, recycle, compost and donate.

Clearly marked containers help people at events recycle their trash rather than putting it into the garbage. Photo/Waste Management

“Sustainability is a journey,” Randall said. “Nobody hits 100% the next day. A lot of companies begin to embrace concepts of sustainability for good reasons. They can

Management offers single stream recycling, which allows

reduce risks with certain materials that have harmful

customers to put all their recyclables together – glass, cans,

components, reduce transportation costs. These are very

cardboard, plastics and more – in one recycling bin. Single

tactile, financially driven reasons. Then, as they progress,

stream recycling facilities, of which Waste Management

the reasons they pursue sustainability become more stra-

now has 41, are designed for the materials to be sorted and

tegic, and they realize it will increase their brand value,

packaged onsite to be sold for reuse.

and help them secure a new place in the market or retain

Beyond the recycling centers, Waste Management created a Sustainability Division that helps clients create a plan to achieve zero waste to landfill themselves. In 2012, Waste

existing customers. Ultimately, it becomes more strategic than cost savings.

“We work with clients to design their products so they

Management worked with 109 Fortune 500 companies and

design with intent and produce less waste. You really

helped more than 150 communities become green. They

need to design your product from the dumpster up. Really

work with small companies too, and across all industries.

think it through – design at the beginning – so at the end

The process begins with a “deep dive,” where people suit up and sort through a company’s trash to get a better un-

42

www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

of use, there is something else that can be done with the product other than throw it away. Consider disassembling

smart Zero the product and capturing materials for something else.

Repurpose it or even remake it into its original purpose.”

The process takes time and requires a behavioral change by employees from the top down, as well as continuing education.

“I think whether large or small, there is the option to take pride in the business, what they do and realize the impact the business is having on the environment and future generations,” Randall said. “There is a better way to do things.”

Research has shown that companies that are into sustainability have greater value those that are not, Randall said. “For me, that’s the fun part,” he added. “From the personal side, I love it when they realize it’s not just a feelgood pursuit, it’s going to make them more money. They realize their company does better when they implement environmental stewardship.”

Third-party certification for zero waste to landfill status is available through Underwriters Laboratory and others.

This certification validates that companies handle waste in innovative and environmentally responsible ways.

Several of Waste Management’s clients are pursuing this certification. In 2013, the PGA’s Waste Management Phoenix Open earned UL’s zero waste to landfill claim by diverting 100% of tournament waste away from landfills and into recycling and composting facilities.

“That’s the largest PGA event with over 500,000 spectators over four days. We had no trash cans onsite. Everything that came in was either recycled or composted, which was incredible,” Randall said.

Here in South Carolina, Mumford Industries is also working with companies to reduce waste. Mumford collects trailer loads containing multiple materials – card-

A kiosk for recycling can be placed on the golf course to help tournament crowds dispose of items responsibly.

Photo/Waste Management

board, plastic – and takes them to a facility to sort onsite.

“We take it all in one stop and it narrows down the vendors a company has to use,” said Tina Huskey of Mumford

“It’s about being environmentally responsible, profit-

Industries. The company operates out of Ninety Six, S.C.,

able, efficient, competitive and compliant,” she said. While

and specializes in post-industrial plastics. Mumford pro-

South Carolina currently does not have any laws in place

cessed 14 million pounds of material last year.

other than for recycling electronics, many corporations

It’s all about making it convenient for the customer, and showing them how much more they can be doing to save money and keep waste out of the landfill, Huskey said.

have their own mandates that require facilities to operate as close to zero waste as possible.

“We provide data back to our customers about the ma-

“Sometimes I make an appointment and they say, ‘You can

terials they’ve recycled and the volume they’ve saved out

come, but we already recycle.’ And then when I go through

of the landfill,” Huskey said. “Those are really important

their facility and I ask them if they are recycling this or

numbers because they feed the zero waste initiative.”

that or the other and they say ‘No,’ they’re surprised by what else we can help them with,” she said.

“Our goal is to keep those materials out of the landfill,” she said. www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

43

smart Resources

S.C. RECYCLING MARKET DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COUNCIL Members appointed by the governor represent various interests in South Carolina’s recycling business.

Paper Industry Representative Ronnie Grant, RMDAC Chair Sonoco

General Public Representative Kristen Brown MY ECO

Scrap Metal Industry Representative Blake Stanley CRC Scrap Metal Recycling, LLC

SC Department of Commerce Representative Wes Westbrooks BMW

Solid Waste Industry Representative Norman Chandler Republic Services, Inc.

Plastics Industry Representative Brad Dutton PolyQuest, Inc.

Recycling Industry Representative Glenn Odom Wellman Plastics Recycling

Higher Education Research Representative Donna London Clemson University, Jim Self Center on the Future

Aluminum Industry Representative Lauren Cox Alcoa Mt. Holly Tire Industry Representative Dan Chuy Michelin North America, Inc.

County Government Representative Vic Carpenter Kershaw County

Executive Committee Tina Huskey Mumford Industries

Nancy Ogburn Tomato Palms, LLC

Parris Hicks Leigh Fibers

Ronnie Grant Sonoco

Steve Zagorski US Fibers

Laura McKinney New Carolina

Elizabeth Garrison Ever-Green Recycling

Donna London Clemson University, Jim Self Center on the Future

Chantal Fryer SC Department of Commerce

Kristen Brown Green Waste Solutions

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Gerry Fishbeck United Resource Recovery Corporation

www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

smart Resources

Resources SC Department of Commerce

Habitat for Humanity ReStores

SC Biomass Council

www.sccommerce.com

www.habitat.org/env/restores.aspx

www.scbiomass.org

SC Department of Commerce – Recycling Market Development Program

Keep America Beautiful

SC Green Building Directory

www.kab.org

www.scgreenbuildingdirectory.org

www.recyclinginsc.com

Palmetto Pride

SC Sustainability Institute

www.palmettopride.org

www.sustainabilityinstitutesc.org

Solid Waste Association of North America – SC Palmetto Chapter

Southeast Recycling Development Council

www.scswana.org

www.serdc.org

http://recyclinginsc.com/sites/default/files/ all/2013_recycling_market_development_.pdf

SC Department of Health and Environmental Control — Office of Solid Waste Reduction and Recycling

U.S. Green Building Council – SC Chapter

SC Business Network

www.scdhec.gov/environment/lwm/recycle

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

SC Department of Commerce Recycling Directory

www.recyclinginsc.com/directory SC Recycling Market Development Advisory Council

http://sccommerce.com/south-carolinabusiness-network Asphalt Rubber Technology Service

www.usgbcsc.org

www.epa.gov SC Small Business Environmental Assistance Program

www.scdhec.gov/environment/baq/sbeap

www.ces.clemson.edu/arts SC Energy Office Carolina Recycling Association

www.energy.sc.gov

www.cra-recycle.org

Recycling help online To find out about recycling in South Carolina, visit the website of RecyclonomicsSC:

www.recyclonomicssc.com This site has tips for manufacturers, businesses and consumers, as well as information about events, economic impact and recycling business news.

Another resource is the recycling website of the S.C. Department of Commerce:

www.recyclinginsc.com It includes a recycling markets directory, among other information.

www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

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smart Resources

MEMBERS Company...........................................................Contact Name

Michelin North America Inc....................................... Dan Chuy

Divergent Energy...................................................... Scott Harke

Mumford Industries, Inc.......................Tina Huskey, Bill Bruce

Adams Scrap Recycling LLC.............................. Rodney Adams

Nucor............................................................. Bryson Williamson

Alcoa Mt. Holly...........................................................Lauren Cox

Palmetto Synthetics Inc..............................................Bob Usher

Alfa Enterprises USA Inc.......................................Dennis Lepka

Plastics Provider Inc..............................................Phil Ammons

Blue Ridge Packaging............................................... Paul Sleight

Pratt Industries........................................................Tony Mizzell

BMW...................................................................Wes Westbrooks

Recover, Inc.............................................................. Bill McLellan

Carolina Interior

Republic Services...........................................Norman Chandler

Demolition Specialties, Inc.......................... Donald Buchanan Carolina Waste Solutions, Inc..............................Brian Bagwell Cedar Green and Associates.............................. Tom Hamilton Davco Steel, Inc.......................................................Ricky Hardee

Resource Recycling Systems.............................. Marty Seaman Safety-Kleen Corporation.........................................Eddie Hook SC Department of Commerce..............................Chantal Fryer Sonoco...............................................Ronnie Grant, Carol James

E-Z Products, LLC..............................................Phillip McElveen

Southeast Recycling Development Council.............Will Sagar

Ever-Green Recycling................................... Elizabeth Garrison

Southeastern Plastics Recovery............................... John Votaw

Expense Reduction Analysts................................ Ralph Owens

Sustainable Midlands..............................................Ryan Nevius

Fisher Recycling, LLC.........................................Elizabeth Fisher

Tomato Palms, LLC.............................................. Nancy Ogburn

Greater Greenville Sanitation Commission.......... Edwin Marr

Total Product Destruction................ Adam Rogers, Phillip Nix

Impact Cleantech...................................................... Don Dubey

United Resource Recovery Corp. (URRC)...........Gerry Fishbeck

Jim Self Center.....................................................Donna London

US Fibers............................................................... Steve Zagorski

Kershaw County....................................................Vic Carpenter

VLS Recovery Services............................................. Platt Moore

Kiln Direct Inc............................................................Jeff Hobday

WasteZero..................................................................... Les Evans

Leigh Fibers............................................................... Parris Hicks

York County Government...................................... Arthur Ligon

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www.RecyclonomicsSC.com

1 Roaring twenties Winners: small Companies

SANDLAPPER Securities LLC Winner: Small Companies

800 E. North Street, 2nd Floor • Greenville, SC 29601 www.sandlappersecurities.com Total number of local employees: 10 Top local executive: Trevor L. Gordon, founder and CEO Product or service: National independent financial services company Year founded locally: 2005

What major changes has your company experienced since last year? We made some key changes to executive personnel and the types of advisers we choose to bring on to better meld not only with the corporate culture, but also with the needs of our clients. Additionally, we continue to grow the capabilities of affiliated organizations in the creation and distribution of specialized investment products and programs.

What important acquisitions or changes in staffing have you made in the past year? Replaced our firm president with seasoned industry professional Howard Davis. In addition to working with our current advisers and offices, Howard will continue building a robust investment banking platform for the firm.

Have you made important changes in strategy for your business? Just to continue with the same growth parameters outlined in 2011 when Trevor Gordon spun his company off from former parent TIC Properties.

www.scbizmag.com

Company bio: SANDLAPPER Securities, LLC (“SANDLAPPER”) is a design driven versus product driven fullservice independent broker dealer and dealer manager of investment products. The company’s best in class personnel and representatives tailor strategies and recommendations and construct portfolios “designed” to meet your individual needs. Established in 2005 originally to act as the managing broker dealer or dealer manager for nationally recognized and award-winning real estate investment firm TIC Properties, LLC, tenant-in-common syndicated programs, SANDLAPPER was the compliance and distribution engine for assets acquired nearing a billion dollars in value nationwide. Today, SANDLAPPER has grown beyond its singularly focused roots to provide not only a compliance and distribution engine for affiliated and non-affiliated investment programs, but to align itself with some of the independent broker dealer communities’ top representatives, giving them access to the products, services and support they need in order to build, develop and manage your individual investment strategies. The core beliefs of SANDLAPPER and the representatives associated with the firm rest solely on your core needs of preservation of capital and wealth accumulation.

As you are a repeat winner, please share with us updates since 2012: Since 2012, we have continued our expansion and capabilities of the firm nationwide. By creating more access to products and services, SANDLAPPER is able to compete on the same stages as many of the larger Wall Street based firms while still providing the hometown care and support South Carolinians demand and deserve.

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Roaring twenties Winners: Small Companies www.scbizmag.com

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2

3

Ikon Financial Group

Linden Construction of SC

1022 Carolina Blvd. • Isle of Palms, SC 29451 • ikonfg.com Total number of local employees: 77 Top local executive: Chris Young and Jason Myers Product or service: Mortgage broker Year founded locally: 2008 Company bio: Ikon Financial Group is a residential home loan lender licensed in 23 states, based out of Charleston.

As you are a repeat winner, please share with us updates since 2012.

We have opened locations in Texas, Ohio, Tennessee and Oklahoma.

What major changes has your company experienced since last year?

We have increased our workforce significantly and added new territories going from eight states to 23 states.

What important acquisitions or changes in staffing have you made in the past year? We have gone from 12 branches to 29 branches.

What new product or service offerings have you added? Focus on V.A. lending, partnering with veteran groups to help vets with their needs.

245 Seven Farms Drive, Suite 230 •Charleston, SC 29464 www.lindenconstructionco.com Total number of local employees: 12 Top local executive: Brandon Linden Product or service: Commercial construction Year founded locally: 2009 Company bio: Linden Construction is a Southeastern-based design/ build and general contracting company, with a focus on commercial building projects in health care, corporate office, retail and industrial market sectors. We are licensed in South Carolina and North Carolina.

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth? A continued focus on client services and providing competitive pricing.

What sets your company apart from the competition? We feel we are constantly trying to add value to a job by suggesting alternative materials and methods to achieve the clients’ desired vision for their new space while saving them money.

5

Solid Structures

BoomTown

2548 Morningside Drive • West Columbia, SC 29169 www.solidstructures.info Total number of local employees: 12 Top local executive: Sandi Brazell, owner Product or service: General contractor for commercial buildings and renovations Year founded locally: 2008 Company bio: Sandi Brazell began in construction over 25 years ago.

She has developed very good relationships with clients because of her willingness to go the extra mile on projects.

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth? Sandi began developing a foundation to bid on IDC type contracts. Solid Structures has won many of them over the past five years.

What are your personal leadership values? Our core values are building a reputation of integrity one project at a time, setting those standards high from the beginning.

635 Rutledge Ave., Suite 105 • Charleston, SC 29403 www.boomtownroi.com Total number of local employees: 110 Top local executive: Grier Allen, CEO and president Product or service: Real estate software Year founded locally: 2006 Company bio: Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Charleston, BoomTown is a web-based software company that offers a robust online marketing system for real estate professionals. The system includes a customized WordPress real estate website integrated with local MLS data, personalized online advertising and inbound marketing services, a dedicated client success manager, and a cutting-edge CRM (Customer Relationship Management System) with marketing automation. BoomTown’s software solution is used by more than 650 of the top-producing real estate brokerages and teams in the U.S. and was recognized on the 2013 Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Companies List.

Roaring twenties Winners: small Companies

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Roaring twenties Winners: Small Companies www.scbizmag.com

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6

7

CEMS Engineering|Architecture

Charleston Imaging Products

3509 Iron Horse Road • Ladson, SC 29456 www.cemsengineering.com Total number of local employees: 37 Top local executive: Stephen Mahaffey, president Product or service: Architecture and engineering Year founded locally: 1989 Company bio: CEMS Engineering|Architecture is a 25-year-old small business that provides multidisciplinary A/E services including architecture, civil, electrical, mechanical, structural and fire protection engineering.

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth? Growth of the commercial market and our existing government clients has led to an increase in revenue growth.

What sets your company apart from the competition? We provide multiple engineering disciplines and architecture, which allows us to keep the majority of our projects in-house.

1315 Ashley River Road • Charleston, SC 29407 www.charlestonimaging.com Total number of local employees: 18 Top local executive: Sean Mummert Product or Service: Office technology Year founded locally: 1992 Company bio: Charleston Imaging Products Inc. has specialized in providing office technology solutions and business process automations for clients in all types of industries throughout South Carolina for 30 years. We have been taking costs out of companies’ infrastructure by automating their workplace with digital copiers, printers, office furniture, digital signage, 3D printing systems and managed services. We provide document management, manage print services, and software solutions, IT and network support. We help companies save money by utilizing cloud computing to provide remote monitoring of any device connected to your network.

8

9

Alliance Consulting Engineers Inc.

High Street Hospitality Group

P.O. Box 8147 • Columbia, SC 29202-8147 www.allianceCE.com Total number of local employees: 60 Top local executive: Deepal Eliatamby, PE Product or service: Civil and environmental engineering services Year founded locally: 2004 Company bio: Alliance Consulting Engineers, Inc. is a professional civil and environmental engineering firm providing technical consulting services to county governments, municipalities, private developers, industry, architects and other public and private entities. Alliance Consulting Engineers Inc. was founded on the concept that our clients want in-depth personal involvement for today’s complex projects. Our hands-on approach guides the client from conceptual planning through final design, permitting, and construction. Alliance Consulting Engineers is headquartered in Columbia, and also has regional offices in Bluffton, Greenville and Charlotte.

103 N. Main St., Suite 200 • Greenville, SC 29601 www.highstreethospitality.com Total number of local employees: 160 Top local executive: Jason Fletcher Product or service: Restaurants Year founded locally: 2009 Company bio: High Street Hospitality Group is three restaurants and one event space. I opened The Green Room in 2009, Ford’s Oyster House and Cajun Kitchen and The Loft at Falls Park in 2011, and Sip Tasting Room and Rooftop Lounge in 2013. In all the things we do we try to bring something new to the scene and I think that we have accomplished our mission.

What key piece of advice would you give to someone starting out in your field? Be prepared for very hard times in the beginning. Have your concept and stick with it; if you change with every comment within a couple of months you will not recognize your concept anymore.

11

PhishLabs

The Cassina Group

P.O. Box 20877 • Charleston, SC 29413 www.phishlabs.com Total number of local employees: 25 Top local executive: John LaCour, founder and CEO Product or service: Cybercrime protection and intelligence services Year founded locally: 2008. Moved headquarters to Charleston in January 2010.

Company bio: PhishLabs is the leading provider of cybercrime protection and intelligence services that fight back against online threats and reduce the risk posed by phishing, malware, distributed denial of service and other cyberattacks. The company fights against cybercrime by detecting, analyzing and proactively dismantling the systems and illicit services cybercriminals depend on to attack businesses and their customers. With a fixed-fee service model that ensures alignment with client goals, the company partners with businesses to decrease attacks, reduce online fraud and prevent the loss of customer trust.

309 Coleman Blvd. • Mount Pleasant, SC 29464 www.TheCassinaGroup.com Total number of local employees: 27 Top local executive: Robertson Allen and Jimmy Dye Product or service: Real estate Year founded locally: 2006 Company bio: In 2006, company co-founders Jimmy Dye and Robertson Allen partnered to form The Cassina Group. Since that time, the company has rapidly expanded to become a recognized leader in the Charleston real estate market. They now have offices in both downtown Charleston and Mount Pleasant. The boutique firm has just 15 full-time agents and a handful of buyer’s agents, but consistently ranks in the top 1% of the Charleston MLS. In 2012 alone, The Cassina Group handled 235 transactions and over $96.5 million in sales; this year, they have already exceeded their 2012 numbers with 281 sales closed and a sales volume of over $115 million.

Roaring twenties Winners: small Companies

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13

HillSouth

360clean

318 W. Palmetto St • Florence, SC 29501 • www.hillsouth.com Total number of local employees: 21 Top local executive: Robby Hill, founder/CEO Product or service: Information technology consulting services Year founded locally: 2001 Company bio: HillSouth was formed in 2001 and is a privately held technology consulting firm based in Florence and servicing clients all over South Carolina. It has experienced professionals focused on delivering business solutions built on a strong technological foundation.

HillSouth practices strategic technology consulting services in a wide range of industries. The company has been recognized as a winner of the South Carolina’s Workforce Partnership award and the SBA’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for the Southeastern USA. What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth? The bulk of HillSouth’s growth has been our focus on the needs of the health care market as it moves into implementing electronic health records.

3255 Landmark Drive, Suite 103 • Charleston, SC 29418 www.360clean.com Total number of local employees: 4 in corporate office; 80 including employees of franchisees in the Charleston area Top local executive: Barry Bodiford Product or service: Janitorial services (specializes in medical offices and other commercial facilities that desire a specialized/hygienic office cleaning) and 360clean franchise opportunity Year founded locally: 2006 Company bio: 360clean, a privately held company, is the innovative leader of the commercial cleaning industry. 360clean specializes in providing their hygienic janitorial service to medical offices, but also supplies the specialized service to many industry types. Through an expanding network of expertly trained owner-operators, 360clean has created a company that delivers consistent and quality service to office, building and property managers.

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15

EDTS

Vapor Apparel

933 Broad St., Suite 301 • Augusta, GA 30903 www.EDTSolutions.com Total number of local employees: 50 Top local executive: Charles Johnson, CEO Product or service: A regional IT services provider specializing in advanced infrastructure, network security and managed IT services to growing organizations to help customers increase productivity and reduce cost associated with information technology Year founded locally: 1999 Company bio: EDTS was founded in 1999 with the mission of attracting the best employees, working with the latest in emerging technologies and providing the highest level of technology services to clients.

With three Southeastern offices, including one in the Next Innovation Center in Greenville, and more than 50 employees, EDTS serves clients in dozens of industries including health care, manufacturing, banking, higher education, non-profit and professional services.

2120 Noisette Blvd, Suite 109 • North Charleston, SC 29405 www.vaporapparel.com Total number of local employees: 37 Top local executives: Jackson Burnett and Christopher Bernat Product or service: Performance apparel, mass customized printing, Made in USA Cut & Sew performance apparel Year founded locally: 2004 Company bio: Founded in 2004 by two veterans of sublimation and polyester fibers, Vapor Apparel is the industry leader in Sublimation Certified™ blank and decorated apparel. Vapor Apparel has been recognized by SGIA, Impressions Magazine, Wearables magazine, ASI and others for award-winning product development, print quality and commitment to the apparel industry. As part of Vapor Apparel’s mission to protect the environment and reduce our carbon footprint, we operate 100% in LEED certified facilities, and support local environmental sustainability initiatives.

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3200 N. Carolina Ave. • Charleston, SC 29405 www.omaticsoftware.com Total number of local employees: 27 Top local executive: Jeff Montgomery, managing partner Product or service: Software solutions for nonprofit organizations Year founded locally: 2002 Company bio: Omatic Software has focused on automating and integrating software for nonprofit organizations since 2002. Founded in Charleston, Omatic boasts over 200 years of combined nonprofit experience. Recognized in 2013 as the second fastest growing South Carolina company by Inc. 500, Omatic Software provides innovative tools to more than 1,500 organizations worldwide.

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth? While many small software companies have struggled in recent years, we have thrived in many ways because of the value and efficiency our products provide for customers, allowing them to do more with less.

Roaring twenties Winners: small Companies

Omatic Software

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Parker Land Surveying

Low Country Case and Millwork

5910 Griffin St. •Hanahan, SC 29410 • www.plssc.com Total number of local employees: 23 Top local executive: Steve Parker Product or service: Professional land surveying services Year founded locally: 2008 Company bio: PLS has five licensed professional land surveyors on staff and is running 10 field survey crews along with eight office survey technicians. We perform FEMA elevation certifications, construction staking, boundary, topographical, tree, ALTA, subdivision platting, record drawings of installed infrastructure, closing surveys, GPS services, builder services, aviation, landfill consulting, power generation.

What is the main driver of this year’s revenue growth? PLS was selected as the Surveyor of Record for the 15/33 runway replacement project at Joint Base Charleston in late 2011. The project started in January 2012 and just finished in August 2013. PLS earned a letter of recommendation for this project.

3270 Benchmark Drive • Ladson, SC 29456 www.lowcountrymillwork.com Total number of local employees: 42 Top local executive: Robert Stasiukaitis, owner/president Product or service: Commercial cabinetry and architectural millwork Year founded locally: 1990 Company bio: After 10 years as a general contractor, Robert Stasiukaitis founded Low Country Case & Millwork (LCCM) in 1990. The company started with two employees, a rented shop, and leased equipment. With stubborn determination and seven years of reinvesting all profits, LCCM gradually grew. In 2000, LCCM built an 18,000-squarefoot facility in Ladson and added computer aided design and manufacturing technology. In 2004, LCCM added another 12,000 square feet to accommodate growth. In 2006, LCCM completed the Architectural Woodwork Institute’s Quality Certification Program and earned the status of premium grade manufacturer in all categories.

20

Morris Business Solutions

DHG Search Advisors

155 Commons Way • Greenville, SC 29611 www.morrisbusiness.com Total number of local employees: 25 Top local executives: Richard Morris, Rick Morris, Chris Morris Product or service: Morris Business Solutions sells and services the entire Xerox product line in the Upstate of South Carolina and Western North Carolina.

Year founded locally: 2005 Brief company bio: Morris Business Solutions is a locally owned, family run business. Richard Morris and sons Rick and Chris are the owner/ agents. They were the No. 1 agent for Xerox in 2012, small enough to be flexible and able to meet customers’ needs while at the same time part of the Xerox organization, the leader in the industry. In 2005 the company covered two counties for Xerox (Greenville and Spartanburg).

Morris Business Solutions now serves 14 counties from its Greenville office and 10 counties in North Carolina from the Asheville office.

11 Brendan Way, Suite 201 • Greenville, SC 29615 www.dhgsearch.com Total number of local employees: 9 Top local executive: Brad Ledford, president Product or service: Executive and professional recruiting services for accounting/finance and it Year founded locally: 2001 Company bio: We opened our doors in 2001 as Staffing Partners. In September 2013, we changed our name to DHG Search Advisors.

Our new name reflects our focus on advisory services for search and executive placement, and our affiliation with Dixon Hughes Goodman, a Top 15 nationally ranked CPA firm. We’re one of the nation’s top executive recruiting firms for accounting and finance and IT professionals in selected industries — automotive dealers, construction/real estate, energy, financial services, health care and manufacturing. Headquartered in Greenville, we have offices in Spartanburg and Charlotte.

Roaring twenties Winners: small Companies

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49

Welcome

Welcome

Best Places to work

BEST PLACES TO WORK

2013

B

est Places to Work in South Carolina is a multiyear initiative to encourage the state’s companies to focus,new measure andBest moveCompanies their workplaces toward excellence Group, assisted

by ModernThink LLC, a Best Places to Work in South Carolina is an exciting in the hope that they will attract and keep talented employees. workplace excellence consulting firm, conducts a simple yet initiative between Setcom Media Inc., publisher of SCBIZTM Recognizing the Best Best Places to Work in South Carolina is anof initiative between thorough assessment participating companies. and the Charleston Regional Business Journal, and SC Biz News – publisher of the Charleston Regional Business Journal, the Columbia Regional Companies Group dedicated to finding and recognizing South The assessment is a two-part process designed to gather Business Report, GSA Business and SCBIZ magazine detailed – and the data Southabout Carolina Chamber of each participating company. In part one, Carolina’s best employers.

In addition to the positive effect Commerce. the employer completes a questionnaire and in part two, the award has on employee relations and recruitment, the The companies participating are surveyed by Best Companies Group, an independent employees of the company complete an employee survey. driving force for companies to join in the program is the research company. The research is a two-part process. In part one, the employer completes remarkable impact that workplace improvements can have on a questionnaire about employee policies and procedures, among other information. part assessments will be The collected information fromInboth xciting newtheir bottom Best Companies Group, assisted by ModernThink LLC, a line. two, employees answer a 65-question employee survey. combined to produce a detailed set of data enabling the workplace excellence consulting firm, conducts a simple yet er of SCBIZTM expertsisatused ModernThink Theofcollected information from both sets of questions to determineto thedetermine strengths the strengths and thorough assessment participating companies. nd Best The program is open to all South Carolina organizations participating ModernThink is aopportunities two-part process designed to gather of each participating company.opportunities The workplacesofarethe then ranked basedcompanies. on ecognizing South The assessmentand that meet the eligibility requirements.

To be eligibleInfor detailed data about each participating company. part one, ranks the workplaces based on this data and then creates this data. positive effect consideration, companies musta meet the following criteria: the employer completes questionnaire and inreceive part two, theAssessment Assessment Findings Reports that are returned to each ruitment, the All participating companies an individual Findings Report that not employees of the company complete an employee survey.

• Be a for-profi t, not-for-profi t business, or government entity gram is the participating company. only summarizes and sorts employee feedback, but includes South Carolina benchmarking • Beona publicly or privately business ents can have data forheld comparison. collected information from both assessments will be • Have aThe facility in the state of South Carolina Thethe goal ofofthe Best Places to Work Eacha participating company pays athe fee that covers cost research, the survey and in South Carolina combined to produce detailed set of data enabling • Have aexperts minimum of report.

25 employees in state of South campaign toanalysis raise the bar forindeour state’s employers and at ModernThink determine the strengths andwould have Thetocost an the individual company to pay ifisthe were done ganizations Carolina create the kind of excellence and employee satisfaction in the opportunities of the participating companies.

ModernThink pendently would be considerably more. Economies of scale apply when Best Places Group ligible for ranks the workplaces based on this data and then creates • Must be in business a minimum of 1 year workplace that will attract talented people for years to come. conducts a survey with a large number of companies from the same state. owing criteria: the Assessment Findings Reports that are returned to each We are convinced that the real value of participating in the program is not whether a vernment entity participating company. company wins an award but in the employee survey feedback. The report will enable a coma develop and implement the strategic steps necessary to create a great workplace and The goal of thepany Bestto Places to Work in South Carolina te of South campaign is to continue raise the bar for our state’s employers of and to improve the performance their business. create the kind of On excellence and employee satisfaction in Best the Places to Work in South Carolina for 2013. the following pages, we present the workplace that will attract talented people for years to come.

Register Today for Best Places to Work 2007!

Deadline is May 11, 2007!

or Best Places to WorkSPONSORED 2007!

BY:

ne is May 11, 2007!

SPONSORED BY:

REGISTER TODAY!

Visit our website www.bestplacestoworksc.com for more information.

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Best Places to work

Large companies

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Putting employees, clients first makes these companies great places to work

By Holly Fisher

H

aving a passion for the work, fostering the entrepreneurial spirit and avoiding micromanaging are elements that create a great place to work. Edward Jones, Total Quality Logistics and Life Cycle Engineering are three large companies with offices in South Carolina that have found a formula for success when it comes to keeping employees happy and satisfied.

Investment firm Edward Jones regularly appears at the top of the Best Places to Work list in South Carolina — and not by accident. Wendell Jones said the company’s No. 1 focus is taking care of its clients. “If you take care of that, everything else seems to fall into place,” he said. “Our clients know we are treating them like we want to be treated.”

“I think that’s the most important thing,” added Jones, a regional leader overseeing advisers in the northeast area of South Carolina. “If you think of Edward Jones, the first thing we want to come to mind is that they do the right thing for their clients.”

Edward Jones is a national company with 15,000 limited partners who think like owners and are invested in the success of the business. With this business model, Edward Jones doesn’t have to answer to shareholders and stress over a quarterly earnings report, Jones added. The company takes the time to look ahead and really plan for the future.

“We’re not perfect, but if you talk to me or any other partner, they will say the same things: We put client first and we’re a partnership,” he said. “When we make a decision, we might be slower, but it’s a thoughtful decision.”

Having partners rather than employees means the company operates with a results approach, letting people get their work done as they see fit, instead of watching the clock.

Jones has two branch office administrators who alternate taking half days off on Fridays. And sometimes people need to work at

Edward Jones company receives the top award for Best Places to Work in South Carolina.

home or have some flexibility.

“I’m not going to fuss at you if you take 20 or 30 minutes longer for lunch,” Jones said. “If they know I trust them, typically they are coming in early or staying late to make it up. I’m not ignoring it, I’m just giving them flexibility.”

Edward Jones takes an approach to new hires that’s a little unconventional in the industry. “We bring in younger financial advisers, mentor them and share some of our clients,” Jones said. “They help take care of some of our clients so it improves the client service model and helps them learn the business with us.”

“We’re not going to help one financial adviser to the detriment of another,” Jones said. “That’s a huge difference between us and other securities firms. Normally I wouldn’t want a new financial adviser in our office, but if I help him or her be successful, it helps the partnership.”

Focus on the family At Life Cycle Engineering, leadership puts a focus on family, making sure employees know it’s OK to care for a sick child or make it to the school play. As a familyowned business for 30 years, it’s a core value of the company, which provides consulting,

engineering, applied technology and education solutions.

Marie Shomo, marketing coordinator, takes off every other Friday to spend time with her 2-year-old daughter, for example.

And the company also provides tickets to such family friendly activities as RiverDogs baseball, Stingrays hockey, Charleston Battery soccer games and the Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry.

Life Cycle Engineering – which has appeared several times on the Best Places to Work list and this year is in the No. 3 spot for large companies – also hosts family friendly events like a Lowcountry boil, Christmas party and a holiday art contest for employees’ children.

The 212 employees at the Charleston headquarters enjoy food trucks for lunch, monthly cornhole tournaments, yoga on Fridays, a bowling league and a golf league.

Employees support the community through a Trident United Way campaign, food drives and blood drives.

The applied technology group at Life Cycle Engineering supports SPAWAR and it’s common for employees in the consulting and government contracting world to See LARGE COMPANIES, Page 54

Small/medium companies

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A SPARC worker tries out the balance board.

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or Geocent LLC, sticking with a proven formula has kept it at the top of South Carolina’s Best Places to Work list. The company, which does software development and engineering for the government and commercial clients, has 200 employees companywide and 17 at its North Charleston location.

“When you find the winning recipe, you don’t change it,” said Ryan Lemire, who leads the company’s North Charleston office.

The company is keenly focused on employee engagement and job satisfaction.

Instead of annual performance reviews, Geocent conducts “stay” interviews, asking employees about the reasons they stay and what’s going well – or not well – in their work.

One of the best pieces of feedback from those interviews, Lemire said, is that employees feel management cares about them and their wellbeing. Often that comes in the form of flexible schedules and comp time use. Employees can dip into the negative on their paid time off should extraordinary circumstances arise and they need to be away from the office for an extended period.

Geocent also incorporates fun into the workplace with happy hours, a Halloween party and “thirsty Thursday,” which bring employees who work off-site together with those on-site for some social interaction.

Fun is also on the agenda at staffing agency Hire Dynamics LLC, which has 15 employees at its Upstate location and is in the second-place spot on Best Places to Work.

“Our unofficial motto is ‘work hard, play hard,’” said Tanya Carter, branch manager.

“There are days when it’s been stressful and by 1 or 2 in the afternoon we feel like we’ve been going nonstop. Suddenly, we’ll stop for five minutes, crank up music and dance and sing.”

That lighthearted attitude is part of Hire Dynamics’ overall culture and its focus

on changing people’s lives. “Regardless of what position you’re in, whether you’re in the home office, on the senior management team or a recruiter, we’re changing people’s lives,” Carter said. “What we do has purpose.”

Hire Dynamics doesn’t place employees with companies, then forget about them, Carter said. “We strive not to ever lose that connection with that employee,” she said.

Several times a year, the company will gather its talent – its term for temporary employees – for focus groups. About five people are selected from each customer site to come to the main office for dinner and a talk about how their job assignment is going.

“We try to reconnect and they love it,” Carter said. “People who don’t get called in

Best Places to work

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Large companies Best Places to work

LARGE COMPANIES from, Page 52 jump from firm to firm. Not so at Life Cycle Engineering. Within the overall consulting industry, Shomo said there’s a 25.8% turnover rate. Last year, Life Cycle Engineering reported a significantly smaller turnover rate of 10%.

“People love working here,” Shomo said.

And employees know their opinions matter. The company has an open-door policy and takes feedback and suggestions to heart. “We want to continuously improve,” Shomo said.

Rewarding hard work At freight brokerage company Total Quality Logistics – in second place on South Carolina’s Best Places to Work list this year — the motto is simple yet powerful: work hard, play hard.

“We’re a fast moving, high-paced environment and it’s a job that requires a lot of effort from employees,” said Kristine Glenn, senior PR specialist. “So the idea behind our corporate culture is that we support that work ethic and like to reward people for that work ethic

Total Quality Logistics employees Chris Billingslea and Emily Schrenk celebrate at a Halloween costume contest and potluck.

Photo/Total Quality Logistics

and for the work they put in.”

Total Quality Logistics has 21 offices across the country. Its South Carolina location is in Charleston, where 60 people are committed to customers and carriers 365 days a year. The entrepreneurial spirit is high at Total Quality Logistics, as employees run their own accounts so they are moti-

vated to do well. They receive a salary and a commission – with no commission cap, Glenn explained.

Total Quality Logistics was recently recognized by Inc. magazine’s 2013 Hire Power Awards for job creation. Coming in at No. 13 among the top 100 job creators, the company was highlighted in an article titled “Hiring Rule #1: Slackers Need Not Apply” that focuses on the company’s philosophy of rewarding its hardest workers.

At the core of what attracts people to Total Quality Logistics is the opportunity to run their own business and set their own future, Glenn said. Employees are entrepreneurial in spirit and aren’t micromanaged.

That’s very appealing to people, she added.

The company hosts a variety of activities, including potlucks, a chili cookoff, Halloween costume contests as well as events specific to individual offices. In Charleston, team members went on a scavenger hunt across the city after work. Employees volunteer and join in causes like “Movember,” growing mustaches to raise awareness for prostate and testicular cancer, and volunteer with Big Brother Big Sister.

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want to be part of it.”

Internal employees also are recognized and celebrated for their accomplishments.

Even the smallest goals are praised across all branches, Carter said.

Employees also receive a great deal of training in leadership and sales as well as opportunities to grow within the company.

“If you’re in the same position for a year or two and not moving up, something’s wrong,” Carter said. “We want to make sure there are a lot of growth opportunities and training opportunities.”

Software product development company SPARC, No. 3 on the Best Places to Work list, strives to create a culture of innovation and an environment where employees are willing to try new things and take chances.

The team members at SPARC help create an environment that inspires innovation, said CEO Eric Bowman. And putting

those people in place has led to the creation of key SPARC software products.

As the company dealt with growth, Bowman said they hit staffing barriers of hiring and retaining. To improve its own hiring process, the company developed Prepado, a database of 20,000 interview questions and answers that will generate content for a two-hour interview. Whether someone is interviewing an applicant for a technical position or an accountant, they’ll know what questions to ask. “We’re empowering the interviewer to do a better job of interviewing,” Bowman said.

Once the right people are in place, SPARC goes to work to keep them. Internally, people can pitch ideas for company funding – another way to foster employee passions.

SPARC also developed Teamphoria, employee engagement software used for measuring real-time employee engagement, setting goals and doing an annual review.

SPARC now has almost 200 employees at its Charleston headquarters and also was listed as 14th fastest-growing private company in the United States on the Inc. 500.

In many ways it’s similar to other successful tech companies with an overall relaxed environment and employee perks like flexible hours, good health care, a gym, snacks/coffee and games.

But those benefits are just the tangibles that go along with the overall environment Bowman said SPARC is trying to create.

“That environment breeds learning and innovation,” he said. “When team members are engaged, they are willing to stay after hours, do lunch ‘n’ learns and train other aspects of the organization in new technologies. Having that learning environment also helps breed innovation.

“Our organization is dedicated to learning and innovation and that adds significant value to our clients,” Bowman added. “And that’s what we’re here to do.”

Best Places to work

2013

LARGE COMPANIES 1. Edward Jones City: Louisville Employees in S.C.: 479 Services: Financial Services www.edwardjones.com Edward Jones is the nation’s largest financialservices firm in terms of branch offices, with nearly 11,000 U.S. locations. Every aspect of our business, from investment types to branch locations, is designed to cater to our more than 7 million individual investors in communities where they live and work. Financial advisors work with clients to understand personal goals – from college savings to retirement – and create long-term investment solutions that emphasize a well-balanced portfolio and a buy-and-hold strategy. We embrace the importance of building long-term, face-to-face relationships with clients, helping them to understand and make sense of the investment options available today.

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2. Total Quality Logistics

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City: Cincinnati Employees in S.C.: 55 Services: Transportation www.tql.com Total Quality Logistics is a privately held company founded in 1997 that connects consumer product and industrial goods shippers with truck operators that transport freight to market destinations across North America. The company’s more than 2,000 nationwide employees identify the right trucks for particular freight loads, negotiate rates, and ensure on-time delivery. TQL was the first freight brokerage in the nation to introduce mobile freight finding applications to the trucking industry.

The company’s investment in industry-leading technology and its insistence on honest, straightforward communications has made it the second largest freight brokerage in the nation and a nationally recognized Best Place to Work. TQL’s corporate headquarters is located

in Cincinnati, Ohio, with 17 additional satellite offices across the nation.

3. Life Cycle Engineering City: Charleston Employees in S.C.: 208 Services: Engineering www.LCE.com Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) provides consulting, engineering, applied technology and education solutions that deliver lasting results for private industry, the Department of Defense and other government organizations. The quality, expertise and dedication of our employees enable Life Cycle Engineering to serve as a trusted resource that helps people and organizations achieve their full potential. Founded in 1976, LCE is headquartered in Charleston, S.C., with offices across North America and experience around the globe.

4. MWV Specialty Chemicals Division City: North Charleston Employees in S.C.: 431 Services: Manufacturing www.mwv.com MWV Specialty Chemicals manufactures, markets and distributes specialty chemicals derived from sawdust and other by-products of the papermaking process in North America, Europe, South America and Asia. We are a world leader in wood-based carbon products; leading U.S. supplier of paper size, lithographic and gravure printing ink resins; leading U.S. supplier of rosin-based adhesive tackifiers; world’s largest supplier of asphalt emulsifiers; pioneers in the pine chemicals business; and the world’s leading supplier of activated carbon for automotive emissions control.

Some of our products include: Evotherm® makes asphalt cool. Evotherm® is an asphalt additive that makes paving at the coolest temperatures possible; WestRez® keeps you on track. WestRez® is used to make traffic

strips, keeping you on the right side of the road, brighter; Tall Oil Fatty Acid brings your wood floors back to life. Tall Oil Fatty Acid is used to create the Murphy® Oil Soap that many people use to clean the wood products in their home.; Tallax® keeps you warm. Tallex® is used to produce Duraflame® logs that burn cleaner and longer than traditional wood fires.

5. Ob Hospitalist Group City: Mauldin Employees in S.C.: 63 Services: Healthcare - Insurance/Services www.obhg.com Ob Hospitalist Group’s (OBHG) mission is to elevate the quality and availability of obstetric care to expectant mothers by providing in-house Board Certified OB/GYN physician support to our hospital partners 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Our service-oriented physicians are superbly skilled at providing emergent care in times of crisis or routine care in the absence of a patient’s private physician.

OBHG hospitalists welcome the opportunity to treat unassigned and/or uninsured patients, thereby ensuring all patients presenting at the hospital are granted the very best medical care regardless of time, location, complication or circumstance. Our physicians are leaders in developing the hospitalist model’s reputation for excellence in providing quality care, reducing risk and increasing physician availability.

The work we perform makes a difference in the lives of our patients, their newborns and families we serve. It also makes a difference in each hospital by ensuring they are fully equipped with a strong Board Certified, OB/ GYN physician team to successfully care for each patient presenting, regardless of time, day or complication. With each new hospitalist program, lives will be saved. And with each new program, we begin a partnership with a hospital to make a meaningful contribution to a mission focused on Elevating the Standard of Women’s Healthcare.

Best Places to work

6. Elliott Davis LLC City: Greenville Employees in S.C.: 293 Services: Accounting www.elliottdavis.com Founded in 1925, Elliott Davis is one of the largest accounting, tax and consulting services firms in the Southeast and ranks among the Top 50 CPA firms in the U.S. With a concentration on core industries as well as niche areas and emerging business sectors, we offer comprehensive solutions to diverse businesses, organizations and individuals. Forwardthinking and strategic, our team provides 360° perspective, looking at the bigger picture, dynamic details, challenges and opportunities.

The firm serves diverse companies, providing comprehensive solutions in areas such as state and local tax, international services, financial reporting, internal controls, credits and incentives, as well as transactions, business valuations, corporate strategy and worldwide business structuring. Elliott Davis is a member of The Leading Edge Alliance, an international professional association of independently owned accounting firms based in the U.S. and is strategically aligned with LEA Europe and LEA Asia Pacific, a worldwide network of more than 450 offices in 100 countries around the globe.

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7. Colonial Life

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City: Portland Employees in S.C.: 863 Services: Financial Services www.coloniallife.com Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Co. is a market leader in providing financial protection benefits through the workplace, including disability, life, accident, cancer, critical illness and supplemental health insurance. The company’s benefit services and education, innovative enrollment technology and personal service support more than 79,000 businesses and organizations, representing more than 3 million working Americans and their families.

We help our customers design benefit programs to address their business needs. In one-to-one counseling sessions with employees, we offer simple, straightforward advice about the benefits they have and those they may need to fit their individual lifestyles and budgets.

8. McAngus Goudelock & Courie LLC

10. Select Health of South Carolina Inc.

9. SYNNEX Corporation

11. Comatrol/Sauer Danfoss

City: Greenville Employees in S.C.: 554 Services: Computer and computer peripheral equipment and software merchant wholesalers www.synnex.com/us.html SYNNEX Corporation is a distributor of IT products and services, servicing resellers, retailers and original equipment manufacturers, such as HP, Lenovo, Intel, Seagate and Microsoft throughout the world.

City: Charleston Employees in S.C.: 366 Services: Health care - Provider www.selecthealthofsc.com Select Health of South Carolina, one of the state’s largest health insurers, manages the delivery of health care to more than 255,000 members across the state through the First Choice health plan. Members keep their regular Medicaid and receive many expanded benefits and services like health education and nurse support. They also have access to an extensive provider network of physicians, specialists, pharmacies and hospitals.

Best Places to work

City: Columbia Employees in S.C.: 234 Services: Legal www.mgclaw.com MG&C’s teams of legal professionals provide counsel to clients in all aspects of Administrative & Regulatory law, ADR, Appellate Advocacy, Business Litigation, Commercial Transactions, Construction law, Employment law, Environmental law, Litigation, Estate Planning, Real Estate, Utilities, and Workers’ Compensation. Our firm includes practitioners with varying levels of experience, ranging from senior litigating partners to associates, as well as paralegals and professional support staff.

MG&C is “AV” rated by the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory – the highest rating available to law firms.

MG&C’s goal is to meet the needs and requests of our clients and to exceed their expectations. We strive to understand each client’s business, industry, and goals. Our firm attracts clients from across the business spectrum and earns their loyalty through a strong work ethic and uncompromising client service. We are committed to zealous repre-

sentation and obtaining excellent results in the most cost-effective manner. In addition to offering assistance to immediate problems, we strongly emphasize counseling and continuing education through on-site training seminars, telephone consultations, and written updates.

We want clients to understand the issues relevant to their business because we believe that avoiding problems is as important as finding solutions.

At MG&C, we have the experience and resources to provide our clients with the best possible representation and to deliver smart, strategic, forward-thinking legal counsel in all areas of practice. MG&C is focused on delivering success to our clients.

City: Easley Employees in S.C.: 288 Services: Manufacturing www.comatrol.com Comatrol/Sauer Danfoss is a world class provider of mobile hydraulics for the construction, agriculture, and other off-highway vehicle markets. As your most responsive partner, we focus ourselves on innovation and continu-

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Best Places to work

ous improvement to reinvent ourselves and better serve the changing world. We work with customers and suppliers around the world to manufacture high performance machine control solutions.

12. Continental Tire the Americas LLC (CTA) City: Fort Mill Employees in S.C.: 470 Services: Manufacturing www.continentaltire.com With preliminary sales of 32.7 billion euros in 2012, Continental is among the leading

automotive suppliers worldwide. As a supplier of brake systems, systems and components for powertrains and chassis, instrumentation, infotainment solutions, vehicle electronics, tires, and technical elastomers, Continental contributes to enhanced driving safety and global climate protection. Continental is also an expert partner in networked automobile communication. Continental currently has more than 170,000 employees in 46 countries.

As one of the world’s leading tire manufacturers, with more than 41,000 employees, the Tire Division achieved cumulative sales of more than 8.8 billion euros in 2011. Today, the

division has 22 production and development locations worldwide. The broad product range and continuous investments in Research and Development make a major contribution to cost-effective and ecologically efficient mobility.

13. Hospice Care of South Carolina City: Spartanburg Employees in S.C.: 337 Services: Health care - Provider www.hospicecare.net Hospice Care of South Carolina (HCSC) is the leading provider of hospice services in the state of South Carolina. For more than a decade we have been changing the way people think about hospice care by focusing on living, and focusing on what the end of life can be. HCSC provides a multidisciplinary approach to caring for individuals and their families that are dealing with advanced life-limiting illnesses. While our clinical staff focuses on the physical aspect of excellent care, our chaplains and social workers provide the patient and caregivers with the spiritual and psychosocial needs as identified in regular assessments. Our volunteers stand at the ready to assist patients with day-to-day needs such as lawn care or other household chores that may have become difficult for the patient to complete. Together, the multidisciplinary team works to create a peaceful and dignified atmosphere for patients and caregivers to spend meaningful time together. While there are many different approaches to providing hospice care, HCSC continues to hold fast to its vision and mission to be the best end of life care provider, always.

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14. Benefitfocus

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City: Charleston Employees in S.C.: 643 Services: Technology www.benefitfocus.com As the number of employer benefits plans has increased, with each plan subject to many different business rules and requirements, demand for the Benefitfocus platform has grown.

Our principal executive offices are located at 100 Benefitfocus Way, Charleston, S.C. 29492.

The telephone number of our principal executive offices is (843) 849-7476. Our website is www.benefitfocus.com. As of May 31, 2013, we had approximately 800 full-time associates, or employees.

Best Places to work

15. Vi City: Chicago Employees in S.C.: 148 Services: Senior Living www.viliving.com Vi owns and operates a continuing care retirement community in Hilton Head. At Vi, residents live in comfortable, stylish and maintenance-free homes, have weekly housekeeping services, and enjoy fine dining prepared by chefs trained by the Culinary Institute of America. Residents have a wealth of opportunities to stay active and engage in the community. Vi communities also offer services such as assisted living, Alzheimer’s/memory support care and skilled nursing care so that residents may remain in the community, close to their spouse, friends and neighbors, even as their care needs change.

16. Charleston Water System

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City: Charleston Employees in S.C.: 431 Services: Water and wastewater utility www.charlestonwater.com Charleston Water System, formally known as the Commissioners of Public Works, is an inde-

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pendent utility governed by an elected Board of Commissioners. Our 430 associates protect public health and the environment of our community by providing high quality, reliable water and sewer services. Our Hanahan Water Treatment Plant produces high quality drinking water that’s delivered to our customers through 1,750 miles of water mains. The Hanahan plant meets or exceeds all regulatory requirements and is a member of the Partnership for Safe Water. CWS also provides wastewater service (not stormwater) through 700 miles of collection mains, 187 pump stations and eight miles of deep tunnels that carry wastewater to our treatment plant. The Plum Island Wastewater Treatment Plant treats an average of 19 million gallons a day and releases clean water into the Charleston Harbor.

17. InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) City: Salt Lake City Employees in S.C.: 450 Services: Hospitality www.ihg.com IHG is a global hotel company whose goal is to create Great Hotels Guests Love.

We have more guest rooms than any other hotel company in the world – that’s over 674,000 rooms in over 4,600 hotels in nearly 100 countries and territories around the world.

We operate nine hotel brands – InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites, EVEN™ Hotels and HUALUXE™ Hotels and Resorts. Our Charleston Center has approximately 450 employees who focus on creating great hotels guests love through reservations and customer care, creating an individual guest experience through each interaction.

18. Blackbaud Inc. City: Charleston Employees in S.C.: 1,202 Services: Nonprofit software and accounting management www.blackbaud.com Serving the nonprofit and education sectors for 30 years, Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) combines technology and expertise to help organizations achieve their missions. Blackbaud works with more than 28,000 customers in over 60 countries that support higher educa-

Best Places to work

tion, health care, human services, arts and culture, faith, the environment, independent K-12 education, animal welfare and other charitable causes. The company offers a full spectrum of cloud-based and on-premise software solutions and related services for organizations of all sizes including: fundraising, eMarketing, advocacy, constituent relationship management (CRM), financial management, payment services, analytics and vertical-specific solutions. Using Blackbaud technology, these organizations raise more than $100 billion each year. Recognized as a top company by Forbes, InformationWeek, and Software Magazine and honored by Best Places to Work, Blackbaud is headquartered in Charleston, and has operations in the United States, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

19. Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice LLP

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City: Charleston Employees in S.C.: 139 Services: Legal www.wcsr.com A full-service business law firm, Womble

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Carlyle serves a wide range of regional, national and international clients in industries that include health care, life sciences, financial services, commercial real estate, intellectual property/patent, and telecommunications, as well as educational institutions and governmental bodies and agencies.

20. NBSC, a division of Synovus Bank City: Columbia Employees in S.C.: 421 Services: Banking www.bankNBSC.com NBSC, a division of Synovus Bank, currently serves 27 communities in South Carolina from 42 locations. For over 100 years, NBSC has focused on relationship banking and remains dedicated to the communities it serves. NBSC offers diverse lines of business and personal financial services including Checking, Savings, Loans, Lines of Credit, Online Banking, Business Banking, Investment Services, and Mortgage Lending. At NBSC, customers are not just account numbers or voices on the phone; they are our neighbors, friends, and family.

Even though we belong to one of the strongest and most capable regional banking networks in the nation, we consider ourselves first and foremost members of the community.

21. BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina City: Columbia Employees in S.C.: 7,702 Services: Health care - Insurance/Services www.SouthCarolinaBlues.com In addition to being the premier provider of health insurance in South Carolina, we have many affiliated companies that are not licensed with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. These companies are located in South Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas. Some offer other insurance products, such as property, life and mental health and substance abuse benefits. Others administer contracts for the federal government. Some even focus on technology. In fact, our data center, located in Columbia, is ranked in the top 2.5 percent worldwide by IBM.

SMALL/MEDIUM Companies (15 - 249 U.S. EMPLOYEES) City: Metairie, La. Employees in S.C.: 15 Services: Technology www.geocent.com Geocent is a leading technology company sought after by clients, employees and partners for consistently delivering the right solutions. Our operational core competencies include software engineering, data center and core infrastructure development, technology consulting and engineering and scientific support. We do consulting work and product development for the federal government (including SPAWAR, and the Veterans Administration), state and local government, and commercial/charitable entities. Through our Geocent Labs initiatives, we spark innovation among our employees to keep our ideas fresh and our employees motivated!

Our company was formed in 1992 but we have been in Charleston since 2011, where we continue to seek out new opportunities to deliver innovative services. While our

Charleston employment numbers have been stable, this has been experienced in the face of severe cutbacks in federal dollars impacting our office. In every case, we have worked diligently with the employee, communicated possible outcomes at each step, and worked to help them bridge any gaps these budget cutbacks have imposed upon them and our company. Our Charleston and corp leadership has been such that we have still remained stable in numbers during trying times and commit to the strategic growth we envision for S.C. and Charleston. In evidence, although our recruiting team is located in New Orleans, we have employed an enthusiastic and capable recruiter, Valerie Warnock, in our Charleston office.

2. Hire Dynamics LLC City: Simpsonville Employees in S.C.: 15 Services: Staffing Agency www.hiredynamics.com Hire Dynamics is an industry leading staffing

provider for contact (call) centers, manufacturing facilities, supply chain, e-commerce operations, and corporate offices.

3. SPARC LLC City: Charleston Employees in S.C.: 179 Services: Technology www.sparcedge.com SPARC is a software development company creating engaging, forward-thinking technology while putting customers, employees, partners, and the community first. SPARCET is a peer-to-peer employee recognition application where team members can a send public, virtual “Great job!” to show appreciation. Sending a Sparcet takes less than a minute and provides personal and shared recognition across an organization. Teamphoria is an employee engagement platform (EEP) that creates, maintains, and measures an organization’s engagement. It’s the first platform to provide real-time engagement and allow organizations to improve culture. SPARCIN combines a

Best Places to work

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Best Places to work

smart crowdsourced question pool, intelligent interview builder, feedback tools, and street cred to revolutionize the interview experience.

It’s the only interview management tool that actually supports the people doing the hiring.

5twenty is a cloud-based energy management platform with the tools you need to reduce your building’s energy consumption and cut costs. Backed by thought leaders in energy, mathematics, and technology, 520 offers the energy analytics needed to save money and reduce environmental impact. Knappsack is a Mobile Application Management (MAM) platform, featuring secure deployment and full life-cycle management of mobile apps for iOS, Android, HTML5, and Blackberry. It’s an inhouse app store for your workforce! TurbineDB is a high-volume event analytics database, providing real-time insight into billions of data points per second. It is easy to implement with no down-time, and no specialized development is required. TurbineDB exposes the complete story behind your data in real-time.

4. Scott and Company LLC

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City: Columbia Employees in S.C.: 20

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Services: Accounting www.scottandco.com Founded in 1995, Scott and Company LLC is a professional services firm providing assurance, tax, financial advisory and management consulting services to private and publicly traded businesses. Guided by core values of integrity, trust, professionalism, independence and service, we provide quality service and leadership through active involvement of experienced professionals. With offices in Columbia and Greenville, Scott and Company is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the South Carolina Association of CPAs. Our client base is diverse, growing and concentrated in the Southeastern United States.

Scott and Company LLC is registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, and is licensed to practice before the Securities and Exchange Commission. As an independent member of the BDO Seidman Alliance, Scott and Company has access to the domestic and international resources of BDO Seidman, the fifth largest international accounting and consulting organization. This alliance provides us with enhanced access to

specialists, technical expertise, training and state-of-the-art technology to serve clients with flexibility and efficiency.

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City: Columbia Employees in S.C.: 69 Services: Technology www.vc3.com VC3 has been on the leading edge of Information Technology since 1994, providing a full range of IT services to the private and public sectors in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. Headquartered in Columbia, VC3 was named one of South Carolina’s Fastest-Growing Companies in 2007 and again in 2008 and ranked 3rd Best Place to Work in SC in 2011 and again in 2012, climbing from sixth place in 2010. VC3 is also an Enterprise Member of IT-oLogy and is actively supporting their vision, mission and objectives.Our company’s professionals implement IT projects and services that provide above average returns on investment, significantly enhance productivity, and lower technology ownership costs. ​​

6. BoomTown City: Charleston Employees in S.C.: 83 Services: Technology www.boomtownroi.com BoomTown is a web-based software company that offers a robust online marketing system for real estate professionals. The system includes a customized WordPress real estate website integrated with local MLS data, personalized online advertising campaigns, a dedicated Client Success Manager, and a cutting edge leads management system with marketing automation.

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Best Places to work

5. VC3 Inc.

marketing strategy and programs Advertising: creative development and production, media planning and buying, search engine marketing (SEM), direct mail, sales collateral Branding: brand positioning and architecture, corporate identity, style guide development Digital: website development, digital and social media, various Web 2.0 capabilities, including search engine optimization (SEO) Public Relations: media relations, event planning/trade show support, internal communication, issues management

VantagePoint is experienced across a range of industries, including food service, transportation, packaging, technology, health care, advanced materials and building products.

8. Human Technologies Inc. City: Greenville Employees in S.C.: 92 Services: Staffing www.htijobs.com Headquartered in Greenville, Human Technologies, Inc. is a multifaceted human resource advisory firm providing professional recruiting, industrial staffing, human resource consulting, outplacement services, and logistics/ warehouse management services. Founded in 1999, Human Technologies, Inc. is one of the Southeast’s most innovative and versatile human resource firms leveraging the development and delivery of custom-designed programs. HTI prides itself on providing flexible solutions to meet the needs of their client’s most demanding challenges.

9. Palmetto Citizens Federal Credit Union

City: Greenville Employees in S.C.: 17 Services: Advertising/Public Relations/Marketing www.vantagep.com VantagePoint is a leading business-to-business marketing firm serving a select group of regional, national and global clients. We’re known for our insights and ideas that bring measurable impact to our clients’ businesses.

We have significant depth of expertise in each of the following five disciplines: • Marketing: customer and market insight,

City: Columbia Employees in S.C.: 243 Services: Banking www.palmettocitizens.com Our goal is to be the best place for our member-owners! At Palmetto Citizens we provide essential financial products and services to our members — such as Checking accounts, Mortgage Loans, Car Loans, IRAs, VISA, Savings, and Investment type services. These core products are essential, but we especially work to improve the financial well-being of our

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7. VantagePoint Marketing

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Best Places to work

members. Our member-owned, not-for-profit status as “people-helping-people” gives us an unique ability to provide valuable products and services that are in the best interest of our members — both saving them money compared to others and by offering financial options that are intended to truly benefit them as consumers. We strive to be MORE than our member’s primary financial institution, and by focusing upon the best ways we can help them Achieve their Potential through better financial practices and the wise usage of financial services we strive to better help our members find solutions to their needs.

No matter what we accomplish in life — we will accomplish more with better financial practices!

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10. SCRA

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City: North Charleston Employees in S.C.: 164 Services: Research & Development www.scra.org SCRA is a South Carolina-based applied research and commercialization services corporation. SCRA has three sectors which fulfill our missions: SCRA Technology Ventures, SCRA Applied R&D and SCRA R&D Facilities.

Our Technology Ventures services helps form and grow technology companies by providing early-stage funding and commercialization support to 251 advance technology startup companies, help SCRA-supported companies receive $167 million in private follow-on funding from large, private investors, assist 12 technology companies with their relocation to South Carolina and receive technology delivery and economic development awards of excellence from various sources including the International Economic Development Corporation, Forbes and the American Business Awards.

SCRA Applied R&D delivers high-ROI technology solutions such as making prosthetics more durable and increased user comfort through our composite program, lowered the cost of U.S. Navy ship construction by more than $285 million, reduced bacteria through use of anti-microbial copper surfaces by 97% resulting in a 58% reduction in hospital-acquired infections in intensive care hospital rooms and managed 100 national and international programs worth over $1.5 billion in contract value. SCRA R&D Facilities build and manage research and commercialization facilities. They

11. O’Neal Inc. City: Greenville Employees in S.C.: 189 Services: Engineering www.onealinc.com O’Neal specializes in complicated projects that have complex processes and intricate design.

We have been successfully delivering capital projects in the automotive, pharmaceutical/ biotech, process chemical, manufacturing, energy, and pulp and paper markets worldwide.

O’Neal is in the Business of Project Delivery - integrating overall project planning, design, and construction to create cost-effective capital solutions.

12. Advantage Media Group

14. Telogical Systems

15. First Reliance Bank

City: North Charleston Employees in S.C.: 58 Services: Telecommunications www.telogicalsystems.com Telogical creates competition-aware marketing solutions for the nation’s largest communications service providers. Using a proprietary platform, we capture every detail, of every competitive offer, in every ZIP code, every day.

We then craft custom solutions that dynamically apply this competitive context across our clients’ marketing operation, so they can: 1. Create better offers, 2. Attract more prospects, 3. Close more deals, and 4. Retain more customers.

City: Florence Employees in S.C.: 109 Services: Banking www.firstreliance.com First Reliance Bank, founded in 1999, has assets of approximately $400 million, and employs over 100 highly-talented associates.

The bank serves the Columbia, Lexington, Charleston, Mount Pleasant and Florence markets in South Carolina. The bank has been recognized as “One of the Best Places to Work in South Carolina” by SC BIZ for seven consecutive years and was named 2009 Lender of the Year by the South Carolina Housing Authority. First Reliance Bank offers several unique customer programs which include a Hometown Heroes package of benefits to serve those who are serving our communities; Check ‘N Save, a community outreach program for the unbanked or under-banked; a Moms First program; and an iMatter program targeted to young people. The bank also offers a Customer Service Guaranty, a Mortgage Service Guaranty, FREE Coin Machines for

For example, providers can present competitive offer comparisons that automatically adjust to tell their best competitive story for any matchup right on their website.

The result is a 15%+ increase in sales and conversion rates.

Best Places to work

manage a life sciences research facility with state-of-the-art wet labs, installed clean rooms in a high-tech manufacturing facility where new technology industries will grow and be sustained and constructed an advanced materials laboratory that is fully “green” and utilizes environmentally conscious, best-practice design and manufacturing techniques.

City: Charleston Employees in S.C.: 15 Services: Publishing/Printing www.advantagefamily.com Advantage Media Group is an international publisher of business, self-improvement and professional development books and online learning. Advantage has one mission: to help our clients and their constituencies Learn & Grow™.

13. Rhythmlink International LLC

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City: Kansas City Employees in S.C.: 23 Services: Manufacturing www.rhythmlink.com Rhythmlink International designs, manufactures and distributes a variety of accessories for intraoperative neuromonitoring, electroencephalography, evoked potentials, polysomnography, long-term monitoring epilepsy and critical care units. Founded by neurodiagnostic technicians and engineers in 2002, Rhythmlink strives for continuous innovation and superior quality in all of its products. Rhythmlink also offers custom packaging, custom products, private labeling and contract manufacturing services.

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Best Places to work

customers and 8-8 Extended Hours in all of their Florence, Charleston, West Columbia and Lexington locations and is open on most traditional bank holidays. Its commitment to making customers’ lives better and the idea that “There’s More to Banking Than Money” has earned the bank a customer satisfaction rating of 98% (2011 results from an outside survey firm) and the number one market share in its headquarters city of Florence.

16. Rosenfeld Einstein A Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC Co.

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City: Greenville Employees in S.C.: 54 Services: Insurance (non-health care) www.rosenfeldeinstein.com Rosenfeld Einstein is a full-service, independent insurance agency and consulting firm in its third generation of family leadership. Our philosophy is to design highly personalized programs for clients in which we first provide assistance as a trusted adviser and advocate for their needs. Our broad areas of specialty include employee benefits, business and personal coverages, financial planning, and wellness programs.

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17. Johnson Development Associates Inc. City: Spartanburg Employees in S.C.: 31 Services: Real Estate Development www.johnsondevelopment.net Johnson Development Associates, Inc. has steadily grown into one of the most wellrespected real estate developers in the Southeastern United States. Initially focused on the development of local industrial and commercial property, JDA’s portfolio has grown to now include luxury multi-family rental communities and large single-tenant industrial space.

JDA has a proven track record for delivering projects of a large magnitude, while offering the familiarity, accountability and responsiveness of a local partner.

18. C.F. Evans & Co. Inc. City: Orangeburg Employees in S.C.: 72 Services: Construction www.cfevans.com We provide a full range of construction services that keep costs level and quality high, including concept analysis, preconstruction

and construction management. Our delivery methods include general construction and design-build. For 65 years, we have delivered world-class results on multi-family and commercial projects across the Southeast.

In addition, with more than 60 HUD projects completed, we have the capacity to undertake the administrative requirements, work with consultants, and manage the long timelines required to successfully complete these projects. We help developers assemble the right team and successfully navigate the process.

19. DeVita & Associates Inc. City: Greenville Employees in S.C.: 38 Services: Engineering www.devitainc.com As an employee-owned company, DeVita & Associates is an engineering firm committed to success … yours and ours. Our success is deeply rooted in our Core Values; values that focus on integrity and results. Founded in 1984, DeVita & Associates is a dynamic group of professionals that offers comprehensive, multidisciplined engineering services for a variety of projects. As employee-owners, we work hard because we know you work hard.

We give you and your project the attention you expect, providing creative solutions and dependable results.With offices in Greenville; Petersburg, Va.; and Pune, India, we are well positioned to deliver a full range of engineering services suited to the client’s needs.

We work together with one goal in mind: exceeding your expectations time and again.

Our services include mechanical, electrical, structural engineering consulting and design services. In addition, we offer specialty design and detailing services for the concrete and steel industries. We have worked on projects of all sizes and for a wide range of industries, from government assignments to commercial and industrial projects.DeVita is committed to sustainable design practices and is active in the local branch of the United States Green Building Council. We have two LEED Accredited Professionals on staff and are actively involved in several LEED registered projects.

S.C. DELIVERS

Ports, Logistics & Distribution

(Photo/Continental Tire)

Continental Tire presses toward January launch of S.C. plant

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By Chuck Crumbo, Staff Writer

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A

lthough the official launch is weeks away, workers are already making tires at Continental Tire the Americas’ new plant here in the heart of South Carolina. But those tires won’t be on cars and trucks in the

United States.

See TIRES, Page 74

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S.C. Delivers

TIRES, from page 72

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Instead, they’re undergoing testing at the Germany-based company’s facilities in Europe, said Tom Tompkins, engineering manager at the company’s new 1 millionsquare-foot facility, southeast of town on U.S. Highway 521.

“We have to make sure we are producing a quality and safe product,” Tompkins said, adding that every tire made thus far in South Carolina has passed the test.

The testing is just a piece of the final preparations needed to get the facility ready to begin commercial production.

Construction of the plant, which began in June 2012, is complete, and the mixing plant, production lines, presses and conveyor systems are in place. Equipment and manufacturing lines are being tested and commissioned.

The ribbon-cutting, which will be attended by top Conti executives from the company’s headquarters in Germany, as well as state and local officials, is planned for late January. Continental’s Americas division is headquartered in Fort Mill.

“We have to make sure we are producing a quality and safe product.”

Tom Tompkins engineering manager, Continental Tires

The manufacturing facility covers 23 acres and consists of 30,000 tons of steel and 60,000 cubic yards of concrete, Tompkins said. All of the concrete was trucked to the site.

The 330-acre site also is the largest of Continental Tire facilities around the world, Tompkins added.

Hiring for the plant has been strong, said David Ray, the facility’s human resources manager. By year’s end, the facility will have more than 300 employees on the payroll.

And, if all goes well during the first year of operation, Continental will add another 180 workers by the end of 2014, bringing the local workforce up to about 500.

Most of the hires are from Sumter and

surrounding counties, Ray said, adding that only a handful of workers were unemployed at the time they applied. The rest were employed at other companies, including a competitor’s plant, but wanted to work at Continental, he said.

“We’re the new guy on the block – we’re the new and exciting thing with a lot to offer employees,” Ray said.

The plant’s layout follows the linear process of making a tire, starting with the warehouse, where raw materials and chemicals are received and stored.

Then comes the four-story-tall mixing building where the rubber is made from a mixture of natural rubber imported from Malaysia, carbon black and chemical compounds.

The mixer that makes rubber isn’t all that much different than a mixer used in the kitchen.

Making rubber for tires is “like baking a cake,” Tompkins said.

The material that comes out of the mixer is in thick slabs that are then squeezed through a series of large diameter rollers to produce body plies and belts.

“We’re the new guy on the block – we’re the new and exciting thing with a lot to offer employees.”

S.C. Delivers

Unlike many manufacturing facilities that serve as a final assembly plant where components are fitted together to make a product, Continental will makes all the pieces that go into tires at Sumter.

That includes the bead, which is a steel cable made from spools and coated with rubber. The bead keeps the tire attached to the rim.

Making all the tire components in-house gives Conti total control over the product, according to Tompkins. “We get to set our own standards,” he said.

The various components of the tire like the inner liner, body plies, sidewalls, and beads are put together in tire-building machines. Once the “green” tire is assembled in the machine, the belt package and tread are applied and the green tire is inflated and shaped.

The next stage, called the curing stage, involves putting the green tire in a mold, which gives it its final shape. During the curing process, high heat and pressure are applied to stimulate chemical reaction between the rubber and other materials.

The green tire then flows into a mold where

David Ray human resources manager, Continental Tires

it takes on the tread pattern and lettering is pressed into the sidewall.

The tire goes through a number of inspections and is then moved via an elevated conveyor to the warehouse. The warehouse is separated from the main manufacturing building by a drive and parking lot.

The separation of the two buildings, which are about 500 feet apart, is to prevent a fire, if one were to occur, from spreading from one building to the other, Tompkins said.

Besides making tires under the company’s brand, the plant will make tires for the General Tire label. General is a division of Continental Tire the Americas and was acquired by Continental AG in 1987.

David Ray and Tom Tompkins stand near the elevated conveyor that will move tires from the Continental’s factory to the warehouse at the company’s Sumter operation. (Photo/Chuck Crumbo)

SSA Cooper Full-Service Stevedoring & Terminal Operation Breakbulk Handling Specialists

Charleston Office:

(843) 971-2900 PO Box 1048, Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464 in Savannah (912) 652-0599

in Jacksonville (904) 665-0400

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Look for us worldwide including all major and minor ports in the U.S.

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By Bill Poovey, Staff Writer

S.C. Delivers

Port

View of a 40-acre area at the inland port that recently started handling cargo for BMW. (Photo/Bill Poovey)

Newly opened inland port handling cargo for BMW and recruiting more users

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perating with BMW Manufacturing Co. as its lone customer, South Carolina’s new inland port at Greer is trying to drum up business with local companies like Michelin and Adidas and is also talking to Eastman Chemical and John Deere in Tennessee.

Inland Port Terminal Manager Michael Hoffman said the $47 million rail-truck transfer station handled rail shipments of cargo for the automaker in its first week.

“We are actively recruiting other companies,” S.C. Ports Authority CEO Jim Newsome said recently after he and Gov. Nikki Haley got a closeup look at the fledgling operation. Construction at the 91-acre site is expected to continue through the end of the year.

The inland port is intended to speed international cargo shipments between the Port of Charleston, the Upstate and neighboring states.

Norfolk-Southern is expected to ini-

Aerial view of the Inland Port. (Photo/South Carolina Ports)

tially move about 40,000 containers by rail through the inland port annually, and Newsome said he expects the intermodal facility

will handle 100,000 lifts annually within five years.

“I’ll be disappointed if it doesn’t,” he said.

Hoffman said BMW had about 160 containers delivered from Charleston to Greer in a recent week, and “those will be coming by rail” in the future.

“That’s probably a good typical number,” Hoffman said.

The port will operate around the clock, six days a week, he said.

SPA officials are “talking to Michelin and Adidas” and are trying to sign up John Deere in Greeneville, Tenn., and Eastman Chemical in Kingsport, Tenn, Hoffman said.

There are also discussions with poultry operations and cotton brokers in the Southeast.

Newsome said opening the port with BMW as its only customer is not a surprise and allows the authority to “make sure the operation works right.”

He added that prospective customers

S.C. Delivers

“It’s all about speed to market and speed to ports.”

Gov. Nikki Haley

want to see it operating before signing on.

Imported containers arriving at Norfolk Southern’s Seven Mile Yard in North Charleston by 6 p.m. will be available at the inland port the following morning, and export boxes delivered to the inland port by 6 p.m. will be available at the Seven Mile Yard the next morning, a Ports Authority statement said.

Haley described the inland port as an “exciting” addition to South Carolina’s economic-development infrastructure.

“It’s all about speed to market and speed to ports,” Haley said at the inland port. She said “now it is all about selling it” to pro-

spective customers.

The Ports Authority has 13 employees at the rail-truck transfer station, and Haley said it will create more related, spin-off jobs.

“The inland port means jobs,” she said.

BMW has expanded its export operations at a new 413,000-square-foot building adjacent to the inland port. The automaker has said the port will “service 12,000” of its sea containers annually.

The state Ports Authority, a selfsupporting agency, predicts the inland link will take 25,000 trucks off the 200 miles of interstate between Greer and Charleston in its first year.

The S.C. Inland Port in Greer began operations with BMW last month. Port officials think the inland port could become a distribution hub for the Southeast. (Photo/Bill Poovey)

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S.C. Delivers

Inland Port

By Chuck Crumbo, Staff Writer

Hitt: State ‘exhausting’ industrial space inventory

W

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ith economic development announcements popping out of the S.C. Commerce Department like popcorn these days, the state must find places for new businesses and expansions to take root.

“We are quickly exhausting the inventory we have of available sites and available buildings,” said S.C. Commerce Secretary Bobby Hitt. “That’s good news and bad news. We need to do something about it.”

What’s putting pressure on industrial buildings and sites across the state, Hitt said, is that companies want to make their move sooner than later.

“Seventy-five percent of the companies that come to us want buildings. They don’t want greenfield sites,” Hitt said. “They want to move into available buildings in South Carolina as quickly as possible.”

Minneapolis-based Element Electronics’ recent announcement of plans to open its first U.S. television set manufacturing facility in Winnsboro illustrates Hitt’s point.

In March, the company decided to open a U.S. plant and by July it was negotiating with the Fairfield County Council for use of an abandoned 315,000-square-foot manufacturing plant on U.S. Highway 321 bypass in Winnsboro.

What attracted Element to Fairfield County was that there was a building already standing to meet their needs, said Tiffany Harrison, the county’s economic development director.

“It was the largest building available,” Harrison said of the former home to the Manhattan Shirt Co. and Perry Ellis Distri-

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bution Center. “They are able to move into it within their timeframe.”

Element, which expects to ramp up production in December, said it plans to invest $7.5 million and create 500 jobs over the next five years, Harrison added. Those jobs, the company said, are being moved to South Carolina from China, where the firm’s TV sets currently are assembled and then shipped to the United States.

Companies are making their moves more quickly and it helps a community to be able show a client a building they can use, said Mike Briggs, president and CEO of Central SC Alliance, an economic development organization representing 10 Midlands counties.

“That’s just the nature of the business,” Briggs said. “We move at light speed in many ways.”

Although space is getting tight, Briggs said that the region is “in pretty good shape.”

“But when they’re gone, they’re gone and – by the way – we’re trying to selling every one of them,” Briggs said.

Inventory of industrial space is shrinking “because we’ve been successful,” Hitt said.

Since January 2011, South Carolina has recruited more than $9 billion in capital investment and more than 26,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector.

However, Hitt added that local and state leaders need to do some planning to meet the needs of manufacturers and others that need industrial buildings.

“We need to bring together some planning to make sure we’re doing the right mix,” Hitt said. “We have to have a concerted effort. If not, people will turn around and

go the other way.”

One of the challenges in the state’s economic development business is planning future industrial sites near major arterials so companies can have ready access to the interstate highways, railroads and ports.

“We’ve got plenty of land but there’s no connectivity,” Hitt said.

Another challenge is providing inventory of available buildings and industrial sites.

Also, the regulatory fallout from the Great Recession is causing developers to retrench speculative projects such as buildings and industrial sites.

Tighter lending rules require a developer to have a customer signed up before making a pitch to a bank for a construction loan.

Although vacancy rates are low, Chuck Salley, a vice president and principal at Columbiabased Colliers International, said most new projects will be built for a specific customer.

“We don’t anticipate speculative construction unless at least 50% of the building is preleased,” Salley said. “We do anticipate a more active build-to-suit market on shovelready sites.”

If a speculative building is built, it most likely will have to be backed by a local government, Salley said. Local entities can tap proceeds from property taxes and acquire federal matching grants to fund projects.

“We’re no different than a retail business,” Hitt said. “We have to continue to build our product.”

Companies today are not “going to wait,” Hitt added. “Our competitive states are sitting there with shovel-ready sites. We need to be more aggressive, that’s all.”

S.C. Delivers

Manufacturing

By Chuck Crumbo, Staff Writer

S.C. gives firearms manufacturing a shot

I

“This move to South Carolina will help ensure a solid foundation for our company.”

Tony DiChario

president and founder, ATI

Being in a pro-Second Amendment state was critical to both PTR and Ithaca, said Brad Lofton, president and CEO of the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corp.

While PTR was being courted, the S.C. Legislature unanimously passed a resolution encouraging out-of-state firearms businesses and manufacturers to locate in South Carolina, Lofton said.

While the state’s pro-gun rights stance may be a factor in the manufacturers’ decisions, the goal of any company is to make money, said Scott Mason, who serves as the Fluor Endowed Chair in Supply Chain and Logistics in Clemson University’s industrial engineering department.

Although there may not be a direct connection between profitability and political culture, there may be a correlation effect between favorable political culture and profitability, Mason said.

“The incentive packages a state/region can offer to a company can be a draw in terms of should we choose this location,” Mason said. “I would argue as well that favorable logistics conditions in a state such as South Carolina can also play a major role as total delivered cost of an item to customers

incorporates many other costs in addition to just manufacturing/labor cost.”

Josh Fiorini, president and CEO of PTR, said infrastructure, access to interstates and a skilled labor force were keys to the company’s decision.

PTR will be moving into a 58,000-square-foot spec building that the county built in Cool Springs Business Park near Aynor, a town of about 600 people.

Ithaca will build a 20,000-square-foot facility at Cool Springs.

American Tactical Imports, or ATI, an importer of firearms, ammunition and tactical equipment to the United States, said its decision to relocate was two-fold.

The company needed to be in a state friendly to the Second Amendment. And, being an importer, ATI wanted to be close to a port of entry like the Port of Charleston. ATI achieved both goals by relocating to South Carolina.

“This move to South Carolina will help ensure a solid foundation for our company,” said Tony DiChario, president and founder of ATI. The company will locate in Eastport Industrial Park in Summerville. The $2.7 million investment is expected to generate 117 jobs.

The state Commerce Department is focused on bringing capital investment and jobs to South Carolina, said Secretary Bobby Hitt.

“These companies find our state’s business-friendly climate, available workforce and the state’s additional, company-specific training to be a recipe for their success,” Hitt said.

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n less than four months, three firearms manufacturers announced plans to move or expand their businesses to South Carolina, investing $17.4 million and promising to create nearly 400 jobs.

All three companies cited many of the same reasons other manufacturers list for locating in the Palmetto State: dynamic workforce training programs; low business costs; and strong infrastructure.

However, popular support for Second Amendment gun rights has emerged as another arrow in the state’s economic development quiver.

“It very much played a role,” said Joshua Sykes, spokesman for American Tactical Imports, which announced Oct. 28 it will relocate from Syracuse, N.Y., and open a warehouse and distribution center in Dorchester County. “ATI is in the firearms business and they wanted to be in a state that has a good Second Amendment mindset.”

The recruiting of firearms firms began when PTR Industries said it was leaving its home in Bristol, Conn., because of eroding support for the industry.

Then on June 24, PTR made it official, announcing its new home would be in Aynor, a small Horry County town about 28 miles from Myrtle Beach. The project will consist of an investment of $8 million and the creation of 145 jobs.

About four months later on Oct. 17, Ithaca Gun Co., headquartered in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, announced plans to expand and move next door to PTR’s new shop.

Ithaca said its investment would total $6.7 million and create 120 jobs.

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1,000 WORDS

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Meandering through the Francis Beidler Forest, the Audubon Center boardwalk in Harleyville is a great place to view barred owls. Also nicknamed the hoot owl, the barred owl is a common North American native owl. Its familiar “who cooks for you� call can be heard both in old growth forests and suburban settings.

(Photo/Kim McManus)