Grand Rapids-based Vine Line Logistics is paving the way for scaling its operations amid multiple changes, including a move to a new office, bringing on multiple new hires, and becoming an independently owned and operated entity under its newly appointed president, Steve Lyons.
In 2008, Steve’s father, Gary Lyons, founded Custom Logistics, providing transportation services for a produce wholesaler and distributor. After restructuring for growth and customer service accommodations over the years, the firm later reorganized and in 2015 became known as Vine Line Logistics. The company now is independently owned and operated out of Grand Rapids, which Lyons said sets the company up for scale.
“We were part of Vine Line Group and Vine Line Group was the parent company to Vine Line Produce, Vine Line Trucking and Vine Line Logistics. Most recently, Vine Line Produce and Vine Line Trucking were purchased by a company called Fresh Edge, (which is) the parent company of numerous produce wholesalers’ distributions throughout the Midwest. So, (Fresh Edge) came in and purchased that and the logistics company ended up in full ownership underneath my dad, Gary Lyons,” Lyons said. “So, from there, we were able to essentially move out of the Comstock Park facility that we were in as a collective group of companies.”
As part of the larger entity, Vine Line Logistics’ primary business model was once centered solely on the transportation of produce. Looking ahead, the firm plans to continue to build on its credibility in that space while also expanding into other areas. The transition to growing its service portfolio has been successful thus far, as produce transport now accounts for 25% of the business, with 75% of hauls being nonproduce, which Steve Lyons said is fueling growth more space and more team members.
He was appointed president of the company in December and now oversees all operations. Lyons said the company that once consisted of himself, his dad and brother, now has nearly 15 employees on staff, 10 of which were hired in the last two years, with plans to hire five or six additional employees in 2022.
The Vine Line Logistics team is being housed at Start Garden while awaiting completion of its new office on the fourth floor above New Holland Brewery, 408 Broadway Ave. NW. The official move-in date is still to be determined as, ironically, supply chain issues affecting construction.
Lyons said he is excited to move in, noting that he will be able to look out the window at his alma mater, Grand Valley State University, while also being part of the West Side’s thriving Bridge Street community. He said many of the company’s newest hires are recent college graduates or have some sort of experience related to the field, and he hopes the new location and other changes will attract additional recent college graduates to the team.
Vine Line also started its internship program in 2021 and then brought on its trainee as a full-time employee. The company already has plans to continue its new program with a new intern starting in May, as it looks to continue the progression of adding to its team with a focus on career development and employee retention.
“So, the space, the area, having those amenities close, and just being in that demographic, I feel like will put us in a great position to grow our company and recruit the type of candidates and the talent that we’re looking for,” Lyons said. “… (We’re) looking forward to being able to tap into some of the recent and current college talent (and) be able to teach them kind of how this whole thing works, so it’s really exciting for us. I think that we’ve wanted to grow a brokerage for a while now, and it’s just, now that we’re set, you know, now that we’re spun off, we have the opportunity to do just that.”
Prior to recent operational and employment developments, the Lyons family envisioned Vine Line’s future and began establishing the foundation for defining new roles and positions. Entry-level candidates typically start as carrier sales representatives, whose primary role is understanding how to secure capacity from trucking companies and beginning to grow professional relationships. From there, team members often move into logistics representatives, taking their prior experience and redirecting it to the customer side.
“You just have a really good understanding of how to speak that language, because you’ve actually done the work,” Lyons said. “You’ve assigned it to trucking companies, you dispatched it, and kind of seen that side of things.”
In anticipation of an ever-growing team, Vine Line recently appointed one of its logistics sales reps to be the firm’s first logistics sales manager to oversee the customer-facing side and hired a carrier sales manager for the other newly created position that will oversee the carrier-facing team.
“As we’re growing, (there is) the need for these defined positions of who’s managing that team, the carrier side, who’s managing the customer side, who’s handling our accounting, and who’s kind of leading the ship. All these things become far more important when you start increasing the number of employees,” Lyons said. “That’s been the fun part of how do we create the rules? How do we create the positions?”
To further attract new hires, the firm also has focused on competitive compensation as brokerages often offer ample opportunities that tend to involve an additional commission structure.
“How do we make sure to align our compensation packages to be very competitive and fair, and also motivate people in a way, while also giving them a great work environment and have a great culture?” he said.
The process of bringing on new hires also has affirmed the company’s flexibility as it works to find the best possible position for each candidate.
“That’s been something where throughout all the hires, we’ve found what we thought somebody would be really good at. We’re like, ‘Oh, wait, actually you’d be really good on the customer side,’ and so then that opportunity presents itself and we just kind of are small enough to be nimble and … put the right people in the right place.”
As the company worked through establishing the best possible positions for each of its employees, Lyons said Vine Line has a much better identity going into 2022 and a clearer vision of what positions will fulfill the company’s needs to further propel its growth, centered on integrity, trust, respect and transparency. He said he believes that a focal point of setting his employees up for success will translate to setting his customers, and therefore the company, up for success, as well.
“I feel like we’ll run a company that just has a very high-level reputation. And one of the things in this industry and brokerage is that a lot of customers, or just people in general, think that they’re being raked over the coals by brokers, they’re charging them too much. And, you know, they don’t have the transparency that (customers) are looking for, and there’s then this thing that brokerages just are making a bunch of money because we’re kind of the middlemen. And I think that with customers, they really need to be able to know that we’re being honest,” Lyons said. “There’s a lot of times where people will say, like, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry, the truck broke down,’ and they don’t know if that broker’s being honest.”
Lyons emphasized the importance of leading an honest team that can be open and upfront with not just customers, but management alike.
“We’re all human. You know, ‘honesty is the best policy’ is super cliche, but ultimately we want our staff to be able to hold a high reputation in the marketplace so that when people work with Vine Line, they know they’re going to be treated right, they know that they’re going to get honest communication.”
