Chris Woods News
Pursuit of the American Dream: Bulgarian immigrants open RDX’s new Memphis headquarters
This article originally appeared in The Commercial Appeal.
Roumen Denkov and Dian Tchoparov — two Bulgarian immigrants who 15 years ago only dreamt of starting a trucking company — celebrated the latest achievement in their pursuit of the American Dream on Friday afternoon.
In front of various business leaders, friends and family, Denkov and Tchoparov stood in front of trucking firm RDX’s new Memphis headquarters at 4590 American Way. The location was previously known as the former Mall of Memphis site that closed in 2003 and was demolished a year later.
Tchoparov said the 11,000-square-foot facility is more than twice the size of its previous headquarters in Bartlett, 7731 U.S. 70, and its proximity to the interstate was a major selling point to RDX.
“The entire industrial area is within the 5-mile range, so within 15 minutes we can be at any location here,” Tchoparov said. “The immediate access to I-240 is unbeatable. Drivers can be in and out of this facility dropping something. If we need something, they can be in and out under 5-10 minutes at the most. We save them a lot of time.”
Denkov and Tchoparov cofounded their trucking company RDX in Bartlett in 2011. The Bulgarian immigrants started RDX in 2011 after each spent the past four years as truck drivers driving around the country to better learn the transportation and logistics industry.
RDX now has 36 employees and a fleet of 100 commercial trucks in 48 states.
“It’s the exact symbolism of what we hope America is, and I think sometimes we tend to forget that when we were thinking about the major macro policy discussions that are ongoing, you still have people wanting to be here,” said Ted Townsend, Greater Memphis Chamber chief economic development officer. “Not just be here but contribute to our economy.”
The formerly vacant area in Southeast Memphis has slowly been revamped into an unofficial logistics park in recent years as Tag Truck Center, 4450 American Way, is right next to RDX’s new $9 million investment.
“We love to see more companies like RDX and Tag come in but also (more) logistics tech companies,” Townsend said. “We think there’s a great opportunity to build out a logistics tech innovation center, because you’ve got practitioners here.”
As part of the agreement to move its headquarters to Memphis, RDX was approved for a six-year jobs payment-in-lieu-of-taxes in August 2020. The PILOT required RDX to create 15 net new jobs with an average wage of $44,172.
RDX has already added 16 new jobs since the PILOT agreement. Tchoparov said RDX plans to add another 15-20 employees in the coming years and already has sights on expanding its new headquarters.
“We are already thinking (about) the next one because it will happen,” he said. “When I don’t know I can’t specify that, but it will happen.”