MBREDC IN DUSTRY AWARENESS MATT PIVARNIK 4/30/26

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:11

All right. And enjoy and joining us right now, one of the data we'd love to have in that is Matt Cavarett. He is from the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. He is the CEO. And uh so happy to have you. Thank you for coming.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

It's great to be here. I have my Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation hat on this morning. Yes, you sure do.

SPEAKER_03 0:32

But I'm sure you're dressed impeccably because you have a habit of doing that.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Well, you know, it's the uniform. If you ever see me around on a weekend, you will you will actually uh find it very humorous uh that that I don't dress like that every day.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

It's seven in the morning. Come on, be honest. You're sitting on the couch in your pajama.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Nick, Nick, you got it.

SPEAKER_03 0:55

He's having his coffee. Well, uh, you have been part of this industry awareness development course with the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development with a coup for a couple of months now. So um tell us about this latest uh tour around our beautiful county looking at all these businesses here and and what you learned about them.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Yeah, well I'll just say we're about eight months into this process, and it has just been uh it's been fascinating. And I think so. I've been really I've been involved in economic development for about 26 years, and it's to for me, it's just this constant reminder uh that uh when we travel around our community and we see all these big buildings and we see these offices, and and as residents, we really never know what's inside. And even even as economic developers and chamber of commerce folks, sometimes we don't know what's inside all of those buildings. But then when you walk in, what you find is just mind-blowing, fascinating, the technology, the way we're serving the world from an industry standpoint, and then probably most importantly is the economic impact that these companies have and how many people have these amazing and awesome careers that are working in those buildings, and we don't know what's going on in those buildings unless you actually have the opportunity, like I have through MBR EDC, to walk in and learn. And it's really cool. So we we visited six yesterday, it was an intense day.

SPEAKER_03 2:20

You know, and the other thing about it is also that uh you realize what's actually possible, you know, and and you being in the position that you're in and you've always been in that type of position, um, it's it's really bringing that to reality about who we can attract and how we can use them as examples.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Absolutely. Yeah, the sky is the limit for us, it really is.

SPEAKER_03 2:41

So, what did you find at the first place? Technoware.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Okay. Technoware. So, first of all, uh Miko, their president, super cool. Uh, that company is actually headquartered in Finland. They've been in the uh the US uh since 2013. I love this part. They were in Connecticut for five years. And uh I don't think that Connecticut, I don't think they liked Connecticut all that much. And they decided, you know what, if we're going to have an operation in the United States, let's do it somewhere that we absolutely love. So they moved their business. They moved it to Myrtle Beach. And uh it's a company that's actually it's actually a company, and they've been in Myrtle Beach for seven years now, but it's uh the company company was established in 1972, and in Myrtle Beach, they have 80 employees that are that are working. They have 500 globally, and 80 of them are in Myrtle Beach. And then I love this statistic 80 million in annual sales, but 50 million come from that Myrtle Beach facility, and and that's their US. And uh What did they make? It's it's it's they make lighting and interiors for mass transportation. So think major buses, major like trains, bullet trains, Amtrak, cruise ships, and so it's the it's the interiors and the lighting for for for these things. And it is I mean, and they they also have manufacturing in in the UK, Poland, Malaysia. Um, but it it's it's fascinating. And they hire engineers, you know, so they have all these super smart people. I love Miko, he has a very strong Finland Finnish accent. And uh and they're very people focused and people oriented.

SPEAKER_03 4:26

That's amazing. Now, um, did they mention that whether or not they were hiring or looking for certain people?

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Yeah, they they're always looking for certain people. Again, you know, with the 80 employees that they have, they have they're they're so focused on employee engagement that uh that that they are, you know, they don't have high turnover, but they definitely are are are looking for folks and and then their their compensation kind of ranges. I mean it it is the range from from entry-level type positions all the way up to highly prompt engineers. And uh, you know, it's interesting. I I have a son that's a mechanical engineer, and he has this misnomer, and I tell him all the time, you know what? He said, you know what, Dad, there's not a lot of engineering jobs in Myrtle Beach. I'm like, you're wrong. I know that you're wrong. And so I I think a lot of times people feel like that, you know, the the everybody in Myrtle Beach works somehow in the hospitality and tourism industry.

SPEAKER_03 5:19

Yeah, very cool. Um, and of course, you can go onto their website, T-E-K N-O, W A R E Technoware. Very cool. I like looking around their website, and uh, they do all of that railroad, emergency lighting, pretty cool, very awesome. All right, so that was on Century Circle in Conway, which is unbelievable, right? Uh, then you have Tuck Tech on East Coxbury Road, also in Conway.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Yeah, and we walk into this place, and what's cool is we don't usually know what we're walking into, we just know we're walking into a coal industry. This guy with this like really cool uh uh goatee, Peter, uh, welcomed us. We walk in and we realize that this is a company right here in Conway in the Myrtle Beach region, and they make folding kayaks.

SPEAKER_02 6:11

What?

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Kayaks that weigh 21 pounds, they can hold a human being that weighs 300 pounds. So, you know, you're driving down the highway and you're always seeing these like people pulling their kayaks. Right. That you see put people pulling their kayaks, yeah, and and they need a trailer and they need to put them on the top of their vehicle. They're heavy and these can fold yeah, these yeah, these can fold up like a burrito and literally almost look like a backpack, and then you get to this you get to the water, and then it takes about seven minutes, and you unfold this thing, and you have a kayak. They make nine to ten thousand votes per year, and they have nine employees.

SPEAKER_03 6:50

Oh my gosh, that is so wild.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Uh-huh. Started as a garage business, they raised two million dollars in seed funding through Kickstarter. They've been in business since 2019, and then in June of 2020, they actually moved into a 1,200 square foot building. That's the building that we were in. That's amazing. And COVID was awesome for them. COVID was awesome for them.

SPEAKER_03 7:11

Yeah, a lot of people needed to get outside, but they could go out and be, you know, in in the wild. Uh, but you know what? A lot of people love fishing off of these kayaks. And so this is like it's like a new thing because you can get into all these nooks and crannies around the marsh and all that. So um, are these people originally from this area? Like, how did they find Myrtle? Did they mention that? Or Conway, I should say.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

They actually start they actually started in Myrtle Beach, and this and this was really just a garage business. Um the the the thing about is is these boats, it takes about four weeks to make these boats. There's 350 parts, but once you actually see one, you're like, that does not look like 450 parts. And then they do all of their marketing, they they do all of their sales through online business to consumer. And I found this part to be cool. They said shoreline sales is the their major marketing. So if somebody is on a shoreline and they see somebody setting up one of these tuck tech boats, that they're pretty much guaranteed to order one and buy one.

SPEAKER_03 8:14

Right, because people are like, wait, I need that.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:17

Because you know, uh and I can see that it it's actually folded up. How heavy is it? Did he mention that? Did you you told me, I think? 21 pounds?

SPEAKER_01 8:26

21 pounds. The big one, the big one. They go down, they go down to 17 pounds, but the big one's 21 pounds.

SPEAKER_03 8:32

And it looks like the cool thing is he's just carrying it on his shoulder.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Like Yeah, you can just carry it. I mean, think about 21 pounds is not that much, right? And so, um, yeah, and in yeah, it is just I mean, and it's nine employees doing this. Now they can scale up, they can scale up if they you know, during the pandemic, they were making a lot more of these boats because people were wanting to spend more time outdoors, and so they can definitely scale up. Uh, but it is, I mean, it is such a sophisticated process.

SPEAKER_03 9:01

And it fits in the trunk of your car.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

It does. Oh, yeah. Or in the back seat. It's it's small enough to fit in the back seat.

SPEAKER_03 9:07

That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. All right. Um, what's another company that you went to see? I see here Palmetto Corp. Um in Conway. We went to Godwin Paradise.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Yeah, we went to Palmetto Corp. We got to see one of their asphalt plants. But here's the thing: most people don't understand. Palmetto Corp. is actually headquartered in Conway. Okay. Headquartered right here in our Myrtle Beach region. Sean Godwin is the CEO, and he's I mean, he's just an amazing community leader. So I kind of explained to the class yesterday, I'm like, when you have these companies headquartered here, they're doing business all over the state of Cal South Carolina. But because we have all of these people that are headquartered in Conway, we're actually importing dollars into the community. And so we got to see their asphalt process, but they're a big company. Um, they have a thousand employees in the state of South Carolina.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

And they're a$350 million operation. And this is a company that started in 1987. So Sean Godwin, their CEO, he's one of my board members. I'm going to an event here soon that's just an event for the YMCA. That is Sean Godwin that's hosting that event. Like it's a, you know, when you have these people starting these companies, it's very quiet. You really don't know that they're here, but they're doing all these incredible things for our community. And that's that's the beauty of economic development is the economic, the trickle-down economic prosperity from creating the jobs, but also just the philanthropy, the leadership, the executive leadership. So it is a it's a really cool. And you know what? They make roads. Like right now, they they would be the company if you're on 501 or 701 or 4th Brook Lane. They're they're the company that's out there, not only in the Myrtle Beach region, but in the entire state of South Carolina, making our roads unbelievably smooth, lasting a long time. The technology that we saw was incredible. I mean, the testing that they do to make sure that they don't lay down a road and that you know it ends ends up with a pothole soon. So uh we got to learn a lot about this.

SPEAKER_03 11:06

Wavy roads. We got a lot of things. So I went on to their site, palmettocorp.com, and it said, um, we're currently in the market if looking for market uh motivated, forward-thinking team members dedicated to helping our organization reach its full potential. Apply now.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

And they and they average having 50 open positions always in in every facet of construction you can possibly imagine. Amazing.

SPEAKER_03 11:33

Very cool. All right, we're speaking with Matt Prevarnik, the CEO of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, wearing the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development hat today. Uh the next place you went to, or uh who you heard from, was HTC, who is actually the sponsor of our upcoming event.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Yeah, happy seven years.

SPEAKER_03 11:53

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

So uh Yeah, so HTC Yeah, we see them everywhere, right? And and and here's one of the reasons. I mean, HTC is just they they're interwoven to the fabric of this community, right? Go go watch a little league game and you you might see HTC on the front of some jerseys out there. Um they they have they have 300 vehicles that are navigating around Orie County, they have 600 employees. I learned this I learned this yesterday, and I was kind of they they have 160 physical locations in Ory County. And so that is physical locations, 160 and 300 vehicles, and then they're also a community that you will find any like nonprofit organization or organization doing really good things, and you're gonna find their employees and their leadership engaged. So, so Carlton Lewis, their CEO, he's one of my board members. Mike Hagg, their former CEO, he chaired, he chaired the committee that uh the search committee that actually brought me to town. Um, now I will say one thing that's interesting. They are such a cool company and they focus so much on employee engagement. People don't leave there. So they have 600 employees, but 25% of their employees, a quarter of their workforce, is is slated to retire in the next 10 years. So they're definitely in a hiring mode. And I met several of their employees yesterday, and it seems like every single one of them started with an internship.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Hey, Matt.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

They have this real yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

I was just gonna add, as a customer of HTC, they didn't pay me to say this. I'm here to tell you that I've had certain dealings with them. Their customer service is so top-notch. It's like they can tell everybody else how to do customer service when you either have to call them or have an issue with any of your services. They are like on top of stuff. I love HTC. I'm just telling you.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

And again, they're not paying me to say, and also and their employees just seem happy. And you know what? When employees are happy, qual the quality of service is excellent. Yeah. And so they they they are very focused on their people.

SPEAKER_03 13:55

All right, excellent. And we thank them for the iPads they they give us to help us um really do some more community work as well. Um, all right, we have a couple of more to do. Worksmen's cycles.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 14:08

Tell us about them.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

Okay, so so yesterday was like it was like a dream come true when it comes to just how unique, you know, things we we did not know what we were gonna see here, right? And so Al, Al has this heavy New York accent, and we walk in and all of a sudden we realize they make tricycles. Okay? Yeah. Tricycles. Now you think about tricycles, not little tricycles, not the kind you can buy at Walmart, right? They make, I mean, they literally make industrial tricycles. So picture yourself walking into General Motors or Ford or UPS, and they have these massive two, three million square foot facilities, and one department needs to get apart from one place to the other. You don't want to walk. Sometimes that could be a mile to two mile walk. So they literally have these industrial tricycles, and and that's how the employees get these things from one point to the other. You have companies like Ford Motor Company, they've been they've been using the same model since the 1930s, and every once in a while, worksman tries to actually change the model, and Ford's like, no, do not change this model. And so Ford would be upset if they changed that model. So, I mean, and they have um they have 45, they have 45 employees. They're a fourth generation company. Now, I love this one. This is this is one that um this is one that was actually started in 1972. Okay. So, I mean, it is a is a very, very cool company. And golf and quality of life caused them to move their company from New York to Myrtle Beach.

SPEAKER_03 15:45

Ah, that's like the rest of us.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

Yes. And so golf golf being so, I mean, it was it was just it was a very, very cool experience. But I mean, you're you're walking around and you're seeing all these like vibrant colors, but then you're thinking, these literally are going into places like UPS and General Motors and Ford and all these massive, uh, massive companies, and they ship out about 35 to 50 trucks per week.

SPEAKER_03 16:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

Yeah, and you don't know that's here. You don't know that's here.

SPEAKER_03 16:15

Yeah, that's amazing. So these are heavy duty for you know, commercial. Do they sell them to the general public as well?

SPEAKER_01 16:24

It's you know, it's that's not their primary purpose. Um every once in a while they will get a consumer that wants to buy one of these.

SPEAKER_02 16:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

Um, but it it's not your trike, it's not your trike that you would see in a community. It's your trike that I mean you know, it is it is heavily in it's a workhorse. It's yeah, it it is amazing. You know, I mean everything is manufactured there.

SPEAKER_03 16:47

Uh I would say, you know, I uh I I've seen certain types of trikes like this where you can you know, put a chair behind it so you can bring someone who is unable to ride a bike with you on the bike. Um an adult. You know what I mean? Yeah. Um so I I was thinking about that, you know, for my you know, my mom who's not able to ride a bike but would love to go for a bike ride, you know, or you have a disabled loved one that you would like. So you need something that's heavy duty like that, you know, and safe.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

They they and yeah, they also had tandem and then they had dual, so two people could sit on a truck and both and actually both pedal, right?

SPEAKER_02 17:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Again, I think their primary focus is that big industry, those auto manufacturers and things like that.

SPEAKER_02 17:34

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Um but but they will, yeah, they definitely will. And it it in the the company's actually existed since 1898. It started in New York. It's it's a fourth generation company and the family is still involved. But the reason they're in Myrtle Beach is because they're like, wait, why why wouldn't we run this? Yeah, one run this company in a place that we love to live.

SPEAKER_03 17:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

And that's our opportunity here.

SPEAKER_03 17:57

All right, Matt. The last place was Glenn Dinning. I went there for uh when I went on my tour, and I was just like, what is unbelievable what's going on there on Century Circle in Conway? There's so much going on. Floor, two floors, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

Yeah, it is it's and I actually met I actually met one of the executives there. Uh Daryl was our primary person. He's an HR, but I met one of their executives, and their last name was Glenn Denning, and it it wasn't a coincidence, it was really a family member. But they're they're in the marine market. So, like this is a company that's doing high-tech stuff, engineers galore, engineers everywhere, and their customers are mainly marines, like cruise ships and boats, and they they make these parts and they do all the stuff for for for the the marine market and RVs. They're about 75% marine and 25% RVs, and then they're also getting into the train market. So as the world travels differently, right? And and we're starting to see bullet trains and people want to take trains, uh, they are actually starting to work on the interiors and the equipment for trains as well. Um, so that they have eight and they have 86 employees in Myrtle Beach in the Conway area, 86 employees, and they're another company that like focuses on internships. So you like these days are long, but at the end of it, you just like you're just beaming with pride for first of all, MBR EDC, because things don't just happen, right? Companies don't just flip a coin and sort throw a dart at a map and say, We're gonna go to Myrtle Beach. Somebody has to talk to them, somebody has to recruit them, somebody has to want them here, and then work really hard to get them here.

SPEAKER_03 19:35

Absolutely. I it's just incredible what is actually out there and all the people working hard and running those businesses. You know, it's uh it's not for the faint of heart, especially if you start a business in the 1800s and you're still going today. It's incredible. Yeah, right. It's incredible.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

Right.

SPEAKER_03 19:52

All right, Matt. Yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Well, the last thing I'll say is things don't just happen, right? So I think a lot of times it's really hard. Like it's hard to conceptualize what does MBR ADC do? MBR ADC goes out and they they attract and retain jobs that create wealth in this community and create prosperity in this community. And really, I got to see that six times over. Actually, I'm gonna get to see that fifty or sixty times over during this eight months. But it is it is an amazing and so shout out to Sandy Sandra and the MBR ADC board. They're an incredible organization.

SPEAKER_03 20:24

Absolutely. Matt Favarnik, thank you so much for joining us. Great report.