Local distillery to boost production

Grapevine - Sweet Tea Vodka

Jim Mone
AP

Primarily used for a professional hockey team, the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., will be abuzz in about a month when it hosts the Republican National Convention. A Charleston company, Call Experts, will provide convention delegates with dial-up information about parking, transportation and other practical matters.

South Carolina might like its tea sweet, but it also likes it spiked.

So much so that Firefly Distillery LLC, the maker of Sweet Tea Vodka, announced last week that it would supplement its production at an Orlando, Fla., facility to meet the demand.

Firefly already uses the Florida location to produce and ship to states outside South Carolina, but until now it has made and sent its vodka to all its in-state customers from its Wadmalaw Island base.

Firefly executives say they plan to use the Florida facility "to meet short-term goals," but hope to find a larger facility in South Carolina where eventually they can return all production.

Locations under consideration include properties in downtown Charleston, North Charleston, John's Island and back on Wadmalaw.

Firefly launched its Sweet Tea Vodka in early May. It plans to introduce other flavors, including peach and coffee.

Conventional wisdom

Delegates at the Republican National Convention, set for Sept. 1-4, will have an extra resource for navigating the event at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., thanks to a Charleston-based communications company.

Call Experts, a locally owned and operated call center operator, has developed an information line that visitors can access at the convention by dialing 3-1-1, according to a company press release.

The number will put the caller in touch with information about parking, transportation, schedules and identification requirements.

Dialing 3-1-1 typically puts a caller in touch with local non-emergency government services.

The company decided to help with the convention to cut down on the high number of calls that can inundate local governments when they host big events, company President Michael Leibowitz said in the release.

"The Republican National Convention is a significant international event and we are pleased to be selected as the vendor to supply critical communications services," he said.

More information about the company is available at www.callexperts.com.

Sectors vs. clusters

With their eye on the state's perpetually high unemployment rate, state lawmakers announced an economic development strategy last week.

The plan's main effort was the creation of a Knowledge Sector Council that will coordinate efforts among key stakeholders across the state, but it also laid out three target economic sectors for growth: tourism, the knowledge sector, and the manufacturing, distribution and service sector.

Dubbed the "Pillars for Success," these sectors "have the primary — but not exclusive — responsibility for leading (state) growth," lawmakers wrote in a letter to economic development officials.

The letter was signed by House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston; Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence; Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston; and Rep. Dan Cooper, R-Piedmont.

While their strategy sounds agreeable, it's important to note that targeting certain industries isn't a foreign concept in the Palmetto State.

In the spring of 2004, South Carolina's Council on Competitiveness was created in part to help stimulate industrial growth, said executive director George Fletcher, who applauded the state's effort.

Focusing on certain sectors makes sense because having a group of similar industries in close proximity creates a healthy business atmosphere, he said.

"Think computers in Silicon Valley and automotive manufacturing in Detroit," Fletcher said. "When you have those robust clusters, you don't have to worry about economic development because they generate innovation on their own."

Other groups across the state have pursued industry "clusters," a buzzword in economic development circles that the Brookings Institution defines as "a group of firms, and related economic actors and institutions, that are located near one another and that draw productive advantage from their mutual proximity and connections."

The Charleston Regional Development Alliance has five industry targets in mind when it recruits new businesses: biosciences, aerospace, automotive, advanced security and creative industries.

Alliance Director of Marketing Karen Kuchenbecker said her group keeps those clusters in mind when meeting with site-selection consultants, networking at trade shows and traveling on marketing missions.