Full Tilt Logistics positioned itself for its next round of growth by leasing a large warehouse space in South Meadows that also will serve as its new central headquarters.
Full Tilt Logistics in 2018 purchased its current building at 470 E. Plumb Lane, but the new location allows the company to consolidate and grow its workforce, as well as take on a new line of business, company executives told NNBW in a recent interview. Full Tilt Logistics leased 226,000-square-feet of space on the IGT campus on Prototype Drive that also includes 11,000-square-feet of office space.
The company has already begun moving its entire operations to the south Reno facility and will lease out its building on Plumb Lane. The new facility was necessary to become a true third-party logistics provider, said Cris Novich, managing director of transportation.
“A true 3PL has three legs: Assets, brokerage and warehousing,” Novich said. “Before we just had the two legs. This is a new vertical for us, and not only does it make us more diverse as a business but it also allows us to offer more services to current customers and acquire new customers.”
Full Tilt Logistics was founded in 2014 as a freight brokerage firm and has seen skyrocketing growth. The company needed the ability to provide warehousing and distribution services for its customers to continue that growth curve, said co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Tiffany Novich. The warehouse space also places control of storage and fulfillment functions in Full Tilt’s hands — the company had been working with other local businesses for warehousing solutions but now controls that aspect of its business.
Courtesy Full Tilt Logistics
Working at Full Tilt Logistics is a family affair.
“We have been outsourcing and partnering with other warehouse partners here in the community, but I was really restricted in what I could do to assist my clients,” Tiffany Novich said. “I was reliant on their service levels. Having this under our own roof puts us in a better position for the services we can offer to our clients.”
Adding the third leg of the stool also sets the company up to continue growing its asset and brokerage business lines, added Cris Novich.
“We sat down and looked at this as a team,” he said. “It’s really going to help the other legs of our business. There were customers who wouldn’t necessarily work with us because they wanted an all-in-one package for warehousing, transportation and brokerage of unique types of shipments. This move really allows us to grow those other sectors of our business.
“We are in a position here in Reno that is really ripe for continued growth in this type of space,” he added. “IGT is going to be a great landlord, and we were able to get favorable (lease) terms that should make us competitive in the market for a number of years to come. It was a good deal for all parties.”
Chris Fairchild, vice president of industrial services with Colliers, assisted Full Tilt Logistics in its lease negotiations with International Game Technology.
Full Tilt Logistics took possession of its new space on July 1 and has already started transferring some of its current clients into the new facility. However, tenant improvements are still underway for the office space, and additional warehouse racking also has to be installed. Full Tilt Logistics plans on hosting a grand opening in October for current and prospective clients, Tiffany Novich said.
The larger office space also allows Full Tilt Logistics to grow its workforce, she added. Currently, with truck drivers, Full Tilt employs just over 50 people.
“Now we can expand,” Novich said. “We definitely have a lot more room for team members in the new space. We’ll separate the different departments – logistics, transportation and accounting – and they will have separate offices.”
A centralized location also should help with driver attraction and retention, Cris Novich said. The company had been using two different locations — Plumb Lane for administrative and brokerage functions, and an off-site location for truck and trailer storage.
“It will help bring continuity,” he said. “Driver retention is a big thing. We have very little turnover, and this secures that side of our business.
“We have grown quickly in a short amount of time,” he added. “When you do that, things can get kind of spread out. (The new warehouse) gets us under one roof, and it is really more attractive for employees to come and see how well each segment of the business works together.”
Full Tilt isn’t done expanding, either, added Tiffany Novich. The company expects to continue growing its business lines, and once it maxes out its new space Full Tilt will begin looking at opening satellite offices in different regions of the United States to offer 3PL services.
“We want to maximize what we can do here and then expand to a couple of different markets,” she said. “We do a lot with renewable energy, and we may create additional Full Tilt Logistics facilities in Texas or Tennessee near renewable energy providers in those states.”
The company currently employs 22 drivers. When it can get more trucks – lead times for new tractors and trailers can be as long as 18 months due to ongoing supply shortages – Full Tilt Logistics expects to have nine additional trucks in operation by the end of 2023.
“It has been a little restricting because we have interested drivers, and we have the business, but we can’t get trucks or trailers,” Cris Novich said. “If you are hunting for drivers, you can’t grow. We don’t pinch pennies when it comes to drivers — or any other employee — because we want to provide an environment where they are not thinking about going anywhere else.
“The reality is that a driver can pick up the phone and have a job in 20 minutes,” he added. “Sometimes you have to go through a couple different employees to find that one who really buys into the mission, but once you do you do whatever you can to keep them.”
