Business View Magazine Apr-2023

168 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 4 The story of SharBert Enterprises began over dinner. On a visit to downtown Bozeman, Sharon Hopeman came home empty-handed after shopping for Montana souvenirs for her family back in Virginia. Over dinner in the Bozeman Hotel, she convinced her husband Bert, an experienced alpinist and aspiring shop-owner, to open not the climbing shop he had in mind, but a store with a wide range of Montana gifts. And so in 1993, the couple launched Montana Gift Corral in downtown Bozeman to unexpected success, selling out of key stock on the opening weekend. Since then, Montana Gift Corral has continued a tradition of serving Montana- loving travelers and locals alike as we have expanded into the food and beverage industry with two full-service restaurants in the Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport: Copper Horse Restaurant and Ross Peak Grill. From a cozy and comfortable sit-down experience to fresh, delicious grab-and-go offerings for travelers catching flights, the joy we receive from serving others has never dissipated. Everything that we do is meant to connect people to Montana. Our stores and restaurants owe their steady success to our hardworking local employees; our treasured local artisans, state vendors, and worldwide suppliers; and of course, our loyal customers. .................................... For more information, please visit our websites giftcorral.com thecopperhorserestaurant.com We have great contractors, engineers, and architects on this project, and it is worth it because from a TSA screening standpoint as well as baggage delivery to the airlines for outbound flights we have greatly increased our capacity. “Our most recent upgrade at the airport has been the near doubling of our parking lot capacity,” Sprenger explains, “we have had such a growth in demand, and we are trying to improve our customer experience on every level. Now that the parking lot is finished our next project which we are in the midst of right now is a state-of-the-art upgrade of our baggage system. This will be for outbound baggage and tagging with the Transportation Security Administration and will bring our baggage handling system in line with the major hubs across the country, just on a much smaller scale.” He goes on to explain that “the project is about 60% complete and obviously, anytime you’re working on something that has to operate while you’re rebuilding, well, that creates many challenges. We have great contractors, engineers, and architects on this project, and it is worth it because from a TSA screening standpoint as well as baggage delivery to the airlines for outbound flights we will greatly increase our capacity.” “We are also proud to have developed the system to be state of the art in handling skis. What we’ve done is design the entry point and the delivery