Archive for category: Ribbon Cuttings

by Ardie Arvidson

The Venue, a place to hold events, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday with Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce ambassadors participating.

The Venue is located at 1210 W. Evans St. in Florence.

The business is owned by Susan Missy Gillespie. Monday was her first day of business, and following the ribbon cutting, she catered a dinner at the location.

She said she is excited to offer people in the area another place to hold events.

“I also own Missy’s Café at 257 N. Coit St.,” she said.

She has been in the restaurant/catering business for approximately 16 years.

“I’ve been catering so much lately and having to travel to other places that I thought it was time to have my own place,” Gillespie said.

She said now her customers can rent the space, and she can provide the catering or the customer can bring it in.

Gillespie said she can provide space and catering for wedding receptions, office parties, anniversaries and other types of events. She also provides table decorations.

“I want to cater dinner parties,” she said.

She said she wants to be able to provide a nice place for the events with elegant table decorations.

Originally from Mullins, Gillespie lives in Darlington. She said her family will be helping her with the business.

Gillespie said she hadn’t joined the chamber before and thought this would be a good time to do so. She hopes to be an active member.

To contact Gillespie for rental of The Venue or for catering, call 843-304-1866.

To read the full article on SC Now, click here.

by Ardie Arvidson

The Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce ambassadors joined Palmetto Staffing Agency, LLC on Tuesday afternoon to celebrate its new chamber membership with a ribbon cutting.

Palmetto Staffing is located at 420 W. Cheves St. in Florence. Ronnie Shirlaw is president.

The business was started about four years ago and has two locations, one in Florence and one in Hartsville at 853 W. Carolina Ave.

There are six employees at the Florence location and two in the Hartsville office.

They help businesses with temporary hiring needs while helping people find temporary employment. Most are temporary assignments lasting about three or four months.

Palmetto Staffing is a temporary staffing agency that in some instances results in full time employment, he said. 

Shirlaw said people can come to the office and fill out applications or leave their resumes.

In the next three or four months, Shirlaw said Palmetto Staffing will be moving to a new location on West Evans Street.

“We are in the process of moving,” he said.

Shirlaw and his wife, Angel, have two children and four grandchildren. They live in Florence.

He said he is looking forward to getting involved with the chamber.

For more information about Palmetto Staffing, call 843-407-6361 in Florence and 843-309-9806 in Hartsville.

Published with the permission of Morning News.

by Ardie Arvidson

Bela Family Dentistry of Florence joined ambassadors of the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce on Thursday to celebrate its grand opening and its chamber membership. The celebration included a ribbon cutting with chamber ambassadors.

Dr. John DuRant, who was formerly at the Bela office on West Palmetto Street, and Dr. Liz Shelly from the Darlington office have moved into this facility to better serve the community.

They have seven dentistry rooms to serve patients. Bela provides general dentistry to children through adults. Services include restoring implants, denture services, gum treatments, filings, crowns and bridges.

“It is a great location with state-of-the-art equipment,” DuRant said.

Shelly has been in South Carolina for 30 years but is originally from Chicago. She attended Northwestern University Dental School in Chicago.

DuRant is a native of Gable. He received his undergraduate degree from Clemson University and his dental degree from Temple University in Philadelphia. He did a one-year residency at the Medical University of South Carolina.

“We are happy to be a part of this community,” Shelly said.

“I am very excited,” DuRant said.

Dr. Matthew Cook, the chief executive officer, welcomed guests to the ribbon cutting. He thanked the ambassadors for coming out and supporting them.

For additional information about the services, call 843-662-8413.

To view the full story on SC Now, click here.

by Ardie Arvidson

Swamp Fox Security LLC held a ribbon cutting on Thursday with the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce ambassadors participating.

Swamp Fox Security is in the Charles Gould Manufacturing and Business Incubator, 1951 Pisgah Road in Florence.

The business is owned by Annette Davis-Cantey. She has been in operation for about two years.

“I was in the incubator on Dargan Street,” she said.

She said there was an opening at the Gould incubator, and she took it.

Davis-Cantey said there are lots of advantages to being at this location. She said the business has seminars, networking and other opportunities.

Ashley Deaza, director of the Gould Incubator, said 21 companies are working out of the incubator.

She said the goal is to provide the space and tools needed to help a business get started on a path to success.

She said some of the benefits include being located next to the technologies of the SiMT center such as virtual reality, 3-D printing, events facility, manufacturing center, social media services.

Davis-Cantey said Swamp Fox Security is a private armed security company with five employees.

“I have been doing security since 2002,” Davis-Cantey said. She is also a private investigator.

“I am the first African-American-female-owned security company in the state,” she said.

She said her company provides security for businesses, industry, events such as graduations, reunions and parties and sporting events.

Davis-Cantey, who lives in Mullins, said she was unemployed and went seeking a job. She was hired to do security and loved it. She sought training in the field.

“I went to school and will soon complete my master’s degree in criminal justice,” she said.

To read the full article on SC Now, click here.

by Ardie Arvidson

Palmetto Brick is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Family-owned and -operated since 1919, the brick manufacturing plant is in Wallace with retail showrooms in Florence, Myrtle Beach and locations near Charlotte, North Carolina.

To celebrate its anniversary, the company is hosting events in all of its retail stores. On Thursday, in conjunction with a ribbon cutting for its membership in the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce, Palmetto Brick served lunch at its Florence retail store on Melon Street.

The company was founded by J. L. Anderson in 1919.

Andy Rogers, vice president and a fourth-generation family member to work in the company, said the company was started in Wallace on the Pee Dee River by his great-grandfather.

Rogers said the company is built on “good fortune, good employees and loyal customers.”

Without any one of them, he said, it wouldn’t have lasted 100 years.

“My father or I have been buying brick from Palmetto Brick for over 70 years,” said Bill Segars of Segars Construction Company in Hartsville, who stopped by to congratulate Palmetto Brick on its success and 100 years in business. “From the family ownership, though management, sales and service to the truck drivers; Palmetto Brick has always been a first rate vendor with a quality product. They have a product that we need. We order it, they send it, we pay for it. This type arrangement makes our job in the field much easier.”

“The company continues to learn and grow,” said John Sanderson, Carolina Sales manager. “It takes the whole ball of wax to make a company grow.”

“We have supplied brick for a lot of offices and homes in the area,” Rogers said. “We sell brick in 31 states and Canada.”

The company has 107 employees with six in the Florence office.

The company offers 40 different varieties of brick.

“The most popular right now are the lighter shades of brick,” Rogers said.

For commercial buildings, he said, their best seller is a “true white” brick. He said very few companies can make it.

“We are a green product,” he said. “We take clay out of the ground and burn it with natural gas.”

He said one-third of the company’s electricity comes from a solar farm.

“It is awesome,” he said. “We have been operating with it for close to a year.”

According to the company’s website “Palmetto Brick is the largest family-owned brick maker in South Carolina with a capacity to produce more than 150 million bricks a year. It remains one of only a handful of American-owned and -operated brick manufacturers in the U.S.”

To read the full article on SC Now, click here.