REED'S METALS, INC.
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Guided by its founding principle of "Customer Satisfaction Guaranteed," Reed’s Metals, Inc. of Brookhaven is putting a personal stamp on the metal roofing and steel building industry in the Southeast. Reed's Metals is a multi-million dollar metal provider, utilizing state-of-the-art technology and fabrication methods. Headquartered on a 20-acre site in Lincoln County, the facility produces steel buildings of any size and offers a complete line of multiple roofing panel profiles in 20+ colors with same day service on all roofing orders.
Bernard "Bernie" Reed began Reed’s Metals on June 1, 1998, near Monticello in rural Lawrence County. Using a single hand cutter, he began filling metal roofing orders at night, the same orders he had personally acquired earlier in the day. The next day, those orders would be delivered.
"I started in a tiny green shed with one employee, one forklift and $10,000. We ordered 74 sheets of roofing materials in seven colors from Mountain Metals in Kentucky to get us going," said Reed, who now employs 70 at the company’s five locations. "As we got orders during the day, we would pull the needed sheets that night and hand cut them by the headlights of a car."
Six months into his business endeavor, a customer approached Reed with the opportunity to expand his operation. "He had a 60 x 80 foot building near Brookhaven that he offered to rent to me for $400 a month," said Reed. After moving into a more hospitable work space, business began to increase. By August 2001, Reed saved enough to acquire a structure of his own on the site of his current Brookhaven location.
"When we moved to our present site in the old Latco building, we had about 22,000 square feet of operating space, much different from the tiny green building we started in," he joked. His big boost, however, came in the face of disaster.
Following the widespread devastation from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Reed found himself without power for 10 days. "People were calling me at home as soon as the cellphone service was back up begging me for materials. They needed roofs repaired covering expensive machinery or needed repairs to critical buildings. I had to get back to work," he said. After power was restored to the area, Reed reopened, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week to keep up with demand.
"If you go to the Coast, you’ll hardly see a shingled roof now. A lot of our competitors stepped it up to 10- or 12-hour days, but we ran 24/7 for five straight months following Katrina. People were in need of rebuilding, and we were committed to our same-day policy and to getting people what they needed," said Reed, citing an estimated 115 orders per day filled following the disaster.
Reed saw his business continue to grow and, beginning in 2007, expanded his operation three times in the course of three years. In 2011, he brought in the last piece of equipment to bring the process for completing a metal building from start-to-finish under one roof--a Purlin mill.
"We have a lot of expensive programs and equipment but [the Purlin mill] is necessary for us to get everything done here on site," Reed said. The construction of the new facility, which is used to create bends in certain support beams required in the stabilization of a building’s roof, grew Reed’s Brookhaven operation to more than 120,000 square feet.
Reed’s Metals now has five manufacturing locations across Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee and Arkansas, as well as a design and engineering center in Columbus to assist with professional-grade custom designs. The company is a leading seller and manufacturer of metal roofing and pre-engineered steel buildings in the Southeast and employs more than 70 workers. Reed credits his success to his appreciation for his customers and attention to detail. "We don’t buy business. We sell customer service," he said, adding that every customer, or even a potential customer, receives a hand-written thank you note from him or his staff. With more than 400 metal buildings and more than 8,000 metal roofing jobs in a single year, that equates to a lot of thank you notes.
"It’s the little things, all the way down to tying down their load. If you ever call here and get an automated system, I won’t be here anymore," assured Reed, adding that the company prides itself on stellar customer service, same-day turnaround on materials, and a commitment to excellence. "We don’t forget about our customers once the job is done, we follow up, we do customer surveys to make sure they are completely satisfied with the job we did. If there’s something wrong, we will fix it."
Reed also does his part to support other Mississippi businesses. "We purchase our raw steel from Nucor (which has two locations in Mississippi: Flowood and Starkville) and our scrap materials are sent for recycling to Severstal (recently purchased by Steel Dynamics, Inc.) in Columbus. The only operation we do not perform in-house is paint-all of our paint is done in Byram by Metal Coaters Mississippi." Admitting he still has aspirations for further expansion in the Southeast, Reed’s current focus is on taking care of his clientele and educating the public about the benefits of metal roofs.
He said the new technologies used at Reed’s Metals can create a more protective barrier for metal roofs withstanding up to 140 mph winds, meets IBC safety standards, are EnergyStar rated and can even lower homeowner insurance rates. Reed’s Metals has offered their quality metal roofing for the same price since 2008. With more than 80 years of combined experience from Reed’s staff, "there is no job too small or too big," said Reed.
Aside from the love for his customers and his passion for business, Reed also has a love for his community and fellow Mississippians. The company is well recognized for charitable giving including, in 2014, taking part in the St. Jude Dream Home, donating a shed for the Baptist Children’s Village, and delivering Thanksgiving dinners to local families.
"We started poor with not much to work with, and have seen a lot of success," he said. "We just want to give back."
