Plainfield, Ind. – VMInnovations, an e-commerce company, announced plans today to locate a new distribution center in Indiana, which will be the company’s fourth center nationally. As part of its growth, the company plans to add 75 new jobs by 2021.
“In Indiana, job creation continues to be job one, and we have more Hoosiers working now than ever before in our state’s 200-year history,” said Governor Mike Pence. “As the Crossroads of America, Indiana is a logistical hub and an ideal location for job creators like VMInnovations that ship products to customers around the world. The state’s low-cost, low-tax business environment and our continued investments in infrastructure bolster the advantage of Indiana’s central location, making Indiana a state that works.”

The Lincoln, Nebraska-based company will invest $4.75 million to lease, renovate and equip a 160,000-square-foot fulfillment center at 2812 Airwest Blvd. in Plainfield. Renovations have concluded and order fulfillment began at the facility in July. As part of the build out, VMInnovations installed an internal software service, which will allow the company to ship home and garden, electronic, outdoor, sporting, baby and spa products across the United States. Last year, VMInnovations earned $138 million in revenue, growing sixfold from $23 million in 2010. From 2009 to 2012, the company averaged 75 percent growth each year.

“Indiana’s central location made it an ideal place for a fulfillment center,” said Paul Prakapchuk, operations manager of VMInnovations. “Known as the Crossroads of America, the Hoosier state allows us to reach a significant amount of our customers in just one or two days, which is critical for operating an effective business.”

VMInnovations currently employs more than 160 associates across the country, with existing fulfillment centers in Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Nevada. The company is currently hiring for fulfillment team members, with positions expected to pay salaries above the Hendricks County average. Interested applicants may apply online at www.spreetail.com.

Founded in 2006, VMInnovations sells a wide range of consumer goods through its e-commerce website as well as different marketplaces and delivers orders across the nation in an average of 2.5 days. With a 99.8 percent positive feedback rating from its customers, the company works with suppliers to provide the lowest prices for brand name products.

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation offered VMInnovations Inc. up to $400,000 in conditional tax credits based on the company’s job creation plans. These tax credits are performance-based, meaning until Hoosiers are hired, the company is not eligible to claim incentives. The town of Plainfield approved additional incentives at the request of the Hendricks County Economic Development Partnership and will consider incentives for future expansions.

“The town of Plainfield is pleased to welcome VMInnovations to the Plainfield logistics industry family.” said Robin Brandgard, president of the Plainfield Town Council. “Their decision to locate here is another example of Plainfield’s strong reputation for being one of the premiere sites for industrial and distribution centers. We currently have more than 35 million square feet under roof with more planned to come into the market in the near future.”

Known as the Crossroads of America, Indiana supports more than 5,700 transportation and logistics companies like VMInnovations. Indiana is home to the nation’s second-largest Fed-Ex hub, eighth-largest cargo air facility, 41 freight railroads, three international ports and is the national leader in pass-through interstates. With 82 million people living within a 500 mile radius of the state’s border, Indiana’s highway network is accessible to 80 percent of the population of both the U.S. and Canada within 24 hours.

Marilyn Odendahl for www.theindianalawyer.com

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States and recognized as being a driving force in advancing women’s rights, almost downplayed her importance while speaking at the University of Notre Dame Monday.

“I was very fortunate to be alive as a lawyer when change was occurring in society,” she said.

Ginsburg, known in popular culture as the Notorious R.B.G., appeared in South Bend Monday and spent two hours talking about her life and her work on the Supreme Court before a very appreciative audience of 7,500. Judge Ann Claire Williams of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals moderated the discussion that included a few questions from students and a performance of the habanera with special lyrics to honor Ginsburg from the opera “Carmen” by Giacomo Puccini.

The crowd was lining up around the Joyce Center where Ginsburg appeared at least an hour and a half before the evening event was scheduled to begin. Once inside, they filled the chairs set up on the main floor of the Purcell Pavilion and flowed into the bleachers.

When Ginsburg, wearing a gray jacket and black pants, walked onto the stage, the cheer from the audience sounded like something that would greet a rock star at the beginning of a concert. Undoubtedly the roar was in stark contrast to the silence and closed doors that marked the start of her legal career.

The diminutive Brooklyn native did not get one job offer after she graduated from Columbia Law School in 1959, despite being at the top of her class. Her law professor finally cajoled Judge Edmund Palmieri of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York into taking her on as a law clerk.

After her clerkship ended, she first joined the faculty of Rutgers Law School in 1963 and then moved to her alma mater, becoming the first woman to be granted tenure at Columbia Law School.

While teaching, she got involved in separate legal disputes between female employees and the universities over equal pay and treatment. Then she volunteered to write a brief for the landmark case, Reed v. Reed, 4040 U.S. 71, (1971), which is credited with pushing the Supreme Court to find that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender.

A year after that decision, Notre Dame officially became a coeducational college. Also, Ginsburg co-founded the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union. Through the 1970s, she argued a series of pivotal cases before the Supreme Court that helped advance equality for women.

At Notre Dame, Ginsburg talked about the importance of having women on the bench. She recalled the case, Safford Unified School District, et al. v. Redding, where the Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that a 13-year-old girl had her civil rights violated when school officials stripped searched her after finding two Advil pills in her possession.

Ginsburg said some of the male justices noted boys undress in front of each in locker rooms so they did not comprehend that the situation would be different for a girl. She explained that 13-year-old females have certain sensitivities and she encouraged them to consider how they would feel if their daughters were stripped searched. They then understood the experience was devastating for the teenage girl and ruled in favor of the young woman.

“The court is so much richer in experience because of the diversity of our backgrounds than it would be if we were all cut from the same mold,” Ginsburg said. “… So what we bring to the table are combined knowledge and life experience.”

Yet, Ginsburg maintained the courts do not take society in new directions. Rather, the judicial branch is reactionary, usually trailing behind where the people are going. And that is why she sees her success in the court in pushing back against gender discrimination as the direct result of women asserting themselves more.

“Courts don’t initiate change, people do,” she said. “… If people don’t care, the court will not save this society. If people do care, then the court may rethink some of its old decisions as it did in Brown v. Board of Education and put its stamp of approval on the side of change.”

In response to a question from Notre Dame law student Conor Maloney about how her faith has influenced her career, Ginsburg linked her personal traits to her Jewish upbringing. She noted Jews are sometimes called “people of the book” because they prize education and they are described as having an affinity to argue.

“I think the Jewish heritage is part of who I am,” she said. “It’s one of the reasons I love learning, I love trying to explain my position. I really enjoy a good engagement with a colleague who has a different point of view.”

At the conclusion of the event, Notre Dame President Rev.  John Jenkins made Ginsburg an honorary member of the Fighting Irish women’s basketball team. He presented her with a white jersey emblazoned with her name and the number one.

Ginsburg was scheduled to talk to law students from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Patrick F. McCartan courtroom. Jennifer Mason, associate professor of law and director of the Center for Civil and Human Rights, moderated the discussion.