Kentwood-based Digital Services, Inc., a media duplication company founded in 1993, is growing again with the spin off of its third division, a new production company called DVS Creative.
Mike Kren, manager at DVS Creative, says the company was created to meet the growing demand of clients from its long-established sister company, DVS, a media duplication and asset management company. DVS Creative will focus on video production, post production, editing, DVD and CD authoring, and video encoding/compression.
"Around 2000, we were getting clients (at DVS) who were asking us to handle other services, such as video production, so we started with the (production) management and outsourced other work to freelancers," Kren says.
The work wasn't a core specialty at that time of DVS, which excelled instead at video and optical disc duplication. However, with the growing number of clients seeking production work, the logical step was to spin off the work of this growing area to a new sister company and bring its freelance work back in house, he says.
With the spin-off, Kren left his job as DVS production manager to become DVS Manager. Two other DVS employees joined him and two new ones were hired: Jason Ferguson, a project manager from West Edge Media of Grand Rapids, and Terry Rayment, a motion graphics designer and former freelance designer.
"By bringing them on (board), we're able to handle a wider variety of projects," Kren says. "We can offer a higher level of service, especially since Jason brings a lot of field experience with video production and Terry has an eye of an artist who is very, very creative."
The third sister company is Pelco Solutions, a design and development firm of mobile and web-based applications acquired in 2007.
Digital Services, the parent company which started 16 years ago in the basement of its founder, Paul La Vigne, now employs nearly 30 workers, Kren says. All three companies are located at 4592 40th Street S.E.
Source: Mike Kren, DVS Creative
Sharon Hanks is the innovation and jobs news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected]
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