What Leroy Hite (08C) intended to be a small side business led him to a spot on the Atlanta Business Chronicle's list of the 100 fastest-growing companies in both 2021 and 2022.
Founded in 2013, Cutting Edge Firewood is a luxury firewood business that provides high-quality firewood with white-glove customer service. The company's revenue increased by 600% in just four years. In 2023, Hite was named to the 40 Under 40 lists of both the Atlanta Business Chronicle and Best Self Atlanta Magazine. Cutting Edge has been highlighted on The Morning Show, The Today Show, Fox and Friends, Fortune, and Garden and Gun; appeared on shows on Netflix and Hulu; and counts several celebrities as fans - with Thomas Rhett, Walker Hayes and Chris Daughtry publicly giving shoutouts.
Impressive stuff for a business that started after his 1993 Geo Prism broke down for good on a Friday in 2013. Leroy promised his wife he would buy a truck and start a firewood business "on the side." However, when he walked into work the next Monday, he was fired on the spot - his side business now had to become his main source of income.
Cutting Edge Firewood now has 25 employees and a 40,000-square-foot warehouse and ships firewood and cooking wood nationwide. Leroy continues to innovate by transforming delivery systems and patenting new designs for delivery racks that improve the customer experience while increasing efficiency. Later this year, he plans to release the world's first thermo electric firepit.
Leroy credits Berry and his seven siblings for teaching him determination and fostering a strong work ethic that allowed him to see his business through the hard times. However, he gives Berry's entrepreneurship program full credit for giving him the "entrepreneurial bug," he said. Lessons he learned in the program gave him the skills to establish several businesses, including another firewood business that sparked his appreciation for the "universal and primal" love of fire.
