ITS Logistics expands operations

ITS Logistics, a third party logistics company, is currently in the process of moving its operations to a larger, more efficient site in Sparks.

The company is moving into a 630,000-square-foot building, which previously housed General Motors, located at 555 Vista Blvd. in Sparks. They expect to be fully moved into the new building by June 1.

“It is a pretty exciting time for us,” Patrick McFarland, director of marketing for ITS Logistics, said. “To see the success that this company has had in the last 15 years and now to see us take this big step forward and really continue to grow and mature into a larger company.”

Their current sites, located in Reno and Sparks, have about 500,000 square feet of office and warehousing space that is divided between five different buildings. The new location will bring all of the departments together under one roof and will give them 150,000 more square feet for warehousing and distribution due to the efficiency of how they can store goods in the new building.

The company has signed a long-term lease and is investing several million dollars of capital improvement into the new building.

“We are putting in some significant capital to improve the design and the functionality,” Greg Sanders, chief commercial officer for ITS, said. “We are here for the long term.”

ITS transports a wide range of products that include food and beverages, consumer products, raw materials and manufacturing equipment. They ship and store goods in their warehouse for a number of large national companies such as Starbucks, Amazon, Tesla and many more.

“In general northern Nevada has been a great distribution hub for a lot of these large Fortune 500 companies,” Sanders said.

In addition to their headquarters in Sparks, they have locations in Southern California, Phoenix and the Seattle area.

Over the past five years, ITS Logistics has grown from just over 100 employees to more than 550 employees.

And the company is still growing.

They anticipate that the company will grow by 30 percent in 2016. They plan to add an additional 75 new trucks, 250 new trailers and more than 100 new employees by the end of the year.

The new campus will also include a 9,000 square feet transportation office with a lounge area and showers for the drivers and more yard space to park trucks, trailers and equipment.

“In our business keeping drivers happy is really, really important because they turn over so much in this industry,” Sanders said.

According to Sanders, the turn over rate for drivers in the trucking industry can be as high as 95 percent. However, ITS Logistics’ turn over rate for drivers is between 25 and 30 percent.

One of the reasons for the company’s high retention rate and strong growth throughout the past years is the company culture that the founders built.

“We really strive to treat our drivers as people and not just a number,” Sanders said.

The company was co-founded in 1999 by the company’s CEO Jeff Lynch, COO Darryl Bader and CFO Dan Allen. Long-time friends, the three of them were born and raised in the Reno area and all attended the University of Nevada, Reno.

Lynch and Bader both had experience in the logistics and transportation industry and Allen’s background was in accounting. Together, they built the company based on the principles of integrity, honesty, work life balance and a strong family environment.

“They had a really good process in place, they hired good people and they just kind of grew from there,” McFarland said.

In February 2015, investment firms McNally Capital and Coughlin Capital announced the acquisition of ITS. This partnership allowed the three founders to decrease their own financial risk in the company while still being able to run the company.

Today, ITS is comprised of three main divisions — asset-based expedited and dedicated transportation, warehousing and distribution, and nationwide multi-modal freight brokerage.

The freight brokerage division is the company’s fastest growing operating unit, which produces about a third of their gross revenue. ITS is in negotiations to move the division from its current location at 50 West Liberty St. in the Bank of America building to a larger location.

“We are busting at the seams right now in our downtown office and really need a bigger footprint to expand into,” Sanders said.

The company recognizes that their projected growth for 2016 is pretty aggressive during a time when the global logistics industry is on a bit of a downturn and some of the larger logistics companies are holding off on buying equipment. However, ITS says that they have “earned their right to grow” through profits from the past few years and the company is ready for this accelerated growth.

“This is a very large industry and our overall percent of the pie is pretty small,” Sanders said. “So even if the pie doesn’t grow, we hope to take market share from someone else.”