Last year, a nationwide security industry publication named Corey Hendrix one of 20 leading security integrators under age 40 in the United States. In April, Hendrix, 33, accepted the role of president of FEMAC Security Solutions, a Bulloch County-based company with a three-state reach that has served more than 300 banks, as well as commercial clients as large as Georgia Power.
        His parents own the company, and Hendrix first worked there while a senior at Southeast Bulloch High School. But after graduating from Georgia Tech with honors, he turned down others possibilities to work with the family company. His parents neither insisted that he do so nor gave him a cushy path. That high school job involved sweeping the shop and answering the phone, among other things.
        "I was not hired for a major technical role...," Hendrix said of that first job. "The main way I learned about stuff was back in the shop doing inventory and taking locks apart, stuff like that."
        FEMAC sells and services vaults, safes, safe deposit boxes, pneumatic tube systems, and building access control equipment, such as card reader systems, as well as alarm and video surveillance systems and the hardware for drive-through installations at banks, pharmacies and other facilities. It also handles residential security systems, but this is a small part of its market.
        Headquartered on Union Church Road, with a Register address, the company has banking and commercial clients across Georgia, South Carolina and Florida.
        In 2005, at age 22, Corey Hendrix returned to work full-time at FEMAC Security Solutions, at first as a salesman for the northern part of its market.
        He had started college in the Georgia Tech Regional Engineering Program that then allowed students to complete their degrees at Georgia Tech after two years enrolled in the program at Georgia Southern University. He was the first person to get a Georgia Tech mechanical engineering degree by this route.
        "He got offered some great opportunities, and he turned them down to come all-in with us," said Tracy Hendrix, Corey's father, the founder and CEO of FEMAC. "At the time I was kind of reluctant, but I thought, if he wants to go all-in, great, and I'm glad he did."
        After about two years in sales, Corey switched to operations - the side of the company involved in servicing equipment and overseeing its installation.

National recognition
        He was vice president of operations when Security Systems News named Corey Hendrix to its "20 under 40" Class of 2015 as a security integrator. Integrators are people who work for companies that sell and service security equipment, bringing the various electronic and mechanical devices together for clients.
        "I'm kind of a modest person, so for people to call me and say congratulations and everything, it makes me blush. It makes my head swell a little bit at the same time," Hendrix said. "But it's something good for our business, to allow us to grow. It gives us something to tout, and there were a lot of big peers in that group with me, so it really brings name recognition for me and the company."
        One of the other "under 40" integrators works for Diebold, the largest U.S. manufacturer of automated teller machines. Representatives of other major players in security were nominated.

Local ‘secret'
         Although based near Statesboro for more than 20 years, FEMAC Security Solutions is better known among banks than by the general public locally.
       "We're like the best-kept secret in Bulloch County," said Tracy Hendrix.
       Originally from the Black Creek area of Bryan County, he first served in the Navy, and then went to work for the century-old banking equipment company Lefebure in the 1980s. Lefebure has since disappeared, absorbed in a series of acquisitions.
        Hendrix had been transferred to Valdosta when he left and started his own company, Financial Equipment Maintenance and Consulting, or FEMAC, there in 1990. After moving the company to Bulloch County in 1995, the Hendrixes built the current headquarters in 2000.
        The other member of the FEMAC board is Corey's mother and Tracy's wife, Traci Hendrix. People at the company often call him "Big Tracy" and her "Miss Traci."
        Although banking facilities remain the largest part of FEMAC's customer base, since the banking crisis of 2008 and after, the company has marketed more of its services to non-banking businesses and government agencies.
        Besides equipping all of Georgia Power's drive-through pay centers, the company has done work for cities, such as Cairo, Georgia, and counties, such as Lowndes, Tracy Hendrix said. The city of Statesboro used FEMAC for the audio and video in the Police Department's interrogation rooms. Other local customers include car care places, a motorcycle dealership, and a number of churches and small shops, as well as several banks.
        "The banking side of our business is probably 60 percent of our business," said Tracy Hendrix "That's still growing. It used to be about 95 percent, but now it's 60 and still growing, and the commercial is about 40 percent and there's a little residential in there."
FEMAC currently employs 13 people. Most are technicians who are provided company vehicles and work from their homes.

Growth foreseen
Although reaching customers in three states, those customers are often far apart, and the company is focusing now on serving more customers within a 100-mile radius of Statesboro, making a strong push for what Tracy called the light-commercial sector.
"I see the commercial side of our business really starting to take off," Corey said. "My guys are even telling me, ‘Come on, we've got to get caught up. Y'all are selling stuff as fast as we can put it in' - which is the plan. So in the very near future, I see another employee or two right here in this market."
Herald reporter Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.