Roofer turns shingles and sunshine into revenue.

• Author: Roofers, Baker
• Position: Mid-Market FAST 40

With just a 3% increase in revenue between 2008 and 2010, Baker Roofing Co. hasn't grown as quickly as many of the Fast 40 companies. But the fact that a construction business grew at all during the recession is an achievement.

The Raleigh company even added a few employees during that period, increasing from 594 to 615. The national unemployment rate in the construction industry was 20% in May 2010, according to The Associated General Contractors of America.

Baker Roofing isn't just a neighborhood roofer. It's the country's third-largest roofing and sheet-metal contractor, with locations in 10 cities across the Southeast. It's building the roof of the S600 million Music City Center in Nashville and installed a massive rooftop solar project at the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner factory in North Charleston, S.C. It restored the brick and masonry of BB&T Field at Wake Forest University in 2010 and has roofed numerous buildings at nearly every military base in the state.

Executive Vice President John Matthews says the 96-year-old company diversified during the recession and now provides renewable-energy installation services. It also focused more on its brick and concrete restoration and residential-roofing businesses and expanded into new geographic markets, in some cases through acquisitions of local companies.

Board Chairman Prentiss Baker was one of just 15 employees when he...