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12 SOUTH ERN COATINGSINC ROOFING "I started roofing and selling at 15, and have been doing it ever since," the owner of Southern Coatings Inc. (SCI) said. "I would visit the jobsites after school and clean the grounds to help my father and drop off flyers around the neighborhood. That's when I sold my first job."Shervin Biederman, his father, established SCI in 1978 in Broward County, Fla., and carved out a specific niche that's proven to have staying power nearly 40 years later. Always innovating, Shervin was one of a few at the time to take a chance on urethane foam as a roofing system in south Florida and turned out to be right. Spray foam is a proven system that's specified on many commercial projects, and is a growing business model for established roofing firms as well as the next generation of roofing contractors emerging in Florida. It laid the groundwork for a successful roofing enterprise that the younger Biederman has grown to include services from other markets including metal, shingles, tile, BUR and more. He took control of the company in 2013 and continues the family -business spirit of innovation, com- mitment to high-quality work and willingness to roof anywhere at any time philosophy that he learned from his mentor. Biederman said he vividly remembers one of the company's first large jobs that took workers and his entire family off the American mainland. The project was reroofing the Frenchman's Reef in St. Thomas Virgin Islands. The large, popular beachfront resort overlooks the famous Charlotte Amalie Harbor, and due to the island's heavy reliance on tourism year-round, the project came with an aggressive production schedule. Biederman packed his family up for several months and reroofed the hotel in 1981. The job turned out to be a milestone project and allowed the company to pur- chase much-needed new equipment and invest in other areas. "It gave our family a good start," the younger Biederman reflected. Now the company has roughly 40 employees setup in different divisions: a roofing division that co- vers all installations of commercial and residential projects; a maintenance division that handles repairs, annual maintenance, and urethane foam re -coats; and a separate urethane foam division for new installations. Though hit hard financially by the Great Recession from 2008-11, SCI survived the drought due to its diversity and resiliency, said Heidi Biederman, Scott's wife of 22 years. She for mallyjoined the busi- ness in 2010 and quickly put her hospitality management degree and keen attention to detail to work. Her first task was reaching out to every client in their decades -old database and offering free roof inspections as a way to touch base and generate leads. As a result, the company now offers a comprehensive line of roofing services from installing all roofing systems to providing annual maintenance programs, repairs, and necessary re -coats. Confidential and Proprietary Information Of Southern Coatings, Inc.