The Alden Group
Entrepreneur:
Donald Bryant Jr.’s strength lies in recognizing potential, both in business and in people. Three years ago he took a risk, leaving his career as a marketer to create The Alden Group, a Consumer Products Company headquartered on West Broadway in North Minneapolis. In only three years they have expanded from selling their products in 80 stores to 2000 stores today, with a deal in the making to launch a new product onto the shelves of a major drugstore chain with over 7000 stores nationwide.
The Alden Group’s model is simple: identify a need in the market and offer a way to fill it, constantly asking the question ‘how can we brand our product differently?’ They emerged into this niche industry occupied by household names like General Mills and Proctor & Gamble with their first product, B Smith’s Olive Oil. After success with the celebrity-endorsed olive oil on the shelves of every Cub Foods in Minnesota, The Alden Group continues to broaden their product base. They launched Green Clean® Organic Cotton Wipes, which have replaced the leading national brand of wipes in 1100 SuperValu stores across the nation, and a new product, Organic Baby Eye Care Wipes, will hit stores shortly.
As a small start-up company breaking into a niche industry, The Alden Group faced challenges getting lenders to understand their business model. “But NDC, NEON, and MCCD took the time to sit down, to get to know our organization… and they took the risk,” Donald explains, “From a financial standpoint, NDC has been a real huge blessing.” The Alden Groupworked with NDC consultant Bob Reid to evaluate the company’s financials and establish healthy cash flow projections, determining a plan for optimal business growth. To meet the demands of their growing company, NDC worked in partnership with MCCD and NEON to provide The Alden Group with $60,000 in financing that has enabled them to expand their product base and explore larger markets. To guide this substantial expansion, NDC has enlisted the help of Mike Knight of Alliance Management, with whom Donald is developing growth and investment strategies for the future.
The past three years have been filled with a lot of growing pains, but Donald is excited for what the future holds, for two reasons in particular: First, the company has developed a unique competency to quickly capitalize on new market opportunities by employing strict decision criteria and a disciplined product development/launch approach. Because of this, The Alden Group is building capacity to create quality jobs in the community, and hopes to provide ‘an MBA education’ through internships to young people on the North Side. Secondly, he wants The Alden Group to be an example for other entrepreneurs in the community, inspiring them to begin believing in and imagining their futures. There is incredible potential and a community bursting with ideas in North Minneapolis, and The Alden Group is looking to partner with creative minds to bring these ideas to the market and to West Broadway.
