Business, Media and Culture 2017

Bernie Reed has lived a most-improbable journey that has landed him as one of Mississippi’s most successful self-made businessmen.

Founded 19 years ago in a 200-square-foot portable shed in Lawrence County, Reeds Metals is one of the fastest growing businesses in Mississippi employing over 300. But that was not the start of his humble beginnings. As a young child, Reed lived out of a traveling school bus that migrated to a new state every six months, but these challenges soon became the fuel to his hunger to create stability and a better life for himself.

Reed, now a multi-million-dollar metal provider to residential, commercial and industrial customers, is founder or partner to 10 Reed’s Metals locations that stretches across five states within the U.S., including Southeastern Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas and Missouri. Headquartered on a 20-acre site in Brookhaven, Miss., Reed’s Metals is a proud provider of metal roofing, pre-engineered steel buildings and other metal accessories.

After building metal homes for nearly 20 years, Reed has decided to build a house of love through his 250-acre wedding and event venue, The Hideaway at Reed’s Estate. Based in the heart of Brookhaven, Miss., The Hideaway promotes “Southern Elegance, Meets Rustic Beauty.” Once a simple pine forest, the estate now offers guests everything from rustic cabins to scenic meadows to a horse and carriage that whisks brides off into the sunset backed by the estate’s cherry red barn.

In recent years, Reed has become more active politically.  He was an early Donald Trump supporter and has been involved in a variety of political and community endeavors within the state.