Third generation taking reins at Puliz companies

The Puliz family isn't taking the transition of the company into its third generation of family management lightly.

For four years, family members have visited other companies that have undertaken intergenerational transitions, asking hard questions about what worked and what didn't.

After all the homework, the transition has begun.

Ryan Puliz has been promoted to vice president of Puliz Records Management, the company operations that involve document storage and shredding.

His cousin, Greg Puliz, has been promoted to vice president of Puliz Moving & Storage, which operates as an agent for United and Mayflower van lines.

Both are the grandsons of Al Puliz, who got started in the moving business in Reno in 1951. In 1978, he was joined by his sons Tim (Ryan's father) and Allen (Greg's father), in management of the company. Al Puliz died in 2008.

Ryan Puliz says strict ground rules were established for the 12 members of the family's third generation.

Before they can take management positions, they must complete their college degrees. And they need to work their way through other positions in the companies.

"It's not a gift," Ryan Puliz says. "We've had to earn it."

As the third generation of Puliz family management takes the reins, the companies are looking to further expand their reach.

The companies employ about 100 people, equally split between operations in Reno and Las Vegas.

Even though the company's core moving-and-storage operation tends follows the ups and downs of the national economy, Ryan Puliz says it continues to provide a solid foundation that allows growth into other industry segments.

The company in recent years has added major facilities for document storage the paperless society has yet to arrive and it recently added climate-controlled vaults to provide secure data backup facilities for its clients.

The next step, Ryan Puliz says, is growth of secure document-destruction services as the company looks to build its share of the highly competitive business. Puliz has staffed up its sales force in the document destruction field.

The company figures it can build on its relationships with document-storage and data backup customers to jump-start the document-destruction unit.

And other opportunities get a close look from the family's second and third generations.

"We entrepreneurial, and we're always interested in new opportunities," says Ryan Puliz.