After year at current site, Vanick ready for expansion

A growing, home-grown business is expanding its space on Poplar by 36 percent.

Vanick Digital, a software company, is enlarging its footprint at 5350 Poplar even though it’s called the spot home for just a year.

Vanick now leases 5,000 square feet, and will expand to 6,800 square feet, CB Richard Ellis Memphis announced this week.

Earlier this year, company officials told The Commercial Appeal that the growth has been fueled by corporations rebounding from the recession and needing more software development and other web-based services.

Jim Van de Vuurst and Lou Powell co-own the business.

Vanick Digital’s clients have included International Paper, FedEx, Smith & Nephew and ServiceMaster as well as midsize to large corporations around the nation.

The company’s East Memphis office has wall-size windows and even a foosball table.

“We’re not your stereotypical propeller heads,” Van de Vuurst told the newspaper in April. “We go out of our way to understand our clients’ business models.”

Van de Vuurst worked for International Paper and SAP America before founding Vanick 12 years ago with Powell and Larry Slavick, who later sold his share of the firm.

Vanick first started on Town Square in Collierville, moved to another Collierville site, moved a third time to the Quince Center at Kirby and Tenn. 385, and more recently moved to Poplar at I-240.

Their latest lease offered them the first right of refusal on an adjoining office for future expansion. By last spring ,the company employed 30 people.

Vanick’s revenue has been growing 15 percent to 20 percent year-over-year.

Van de Vuurst told The Commercial Appeal earlier this year he hopes to open offices in other cities in the United States.

Michael Morgan of CBRE|Memphis was the tenant representative on the lease. Patrick Reilly, also of CBRE Memphis, was the leasing agent for 5350 Poplar.