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New England company supplies military with comforts of home

NECN.com Business
NECN: Peter Howe, Bedford, Mass
07.02.09

As Independence Day comes, many of us will be thinking of those who fought to keep this country free, and those who serve today -- especially at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Keeping over 250,000 U.S. troops stationed abroad well-supplied means a lot more than just uniforms and weapons. Ideally, it's all the comforts of home.

Like, chocolate milk.

And as Michelle Keating, CEO of Alder Foods of Walpole, Mass., can tell you, this, is big business. In fact, the network of 284 commissaries at U.S. bases in this country and abroad, which are run as non-profits, gross $6 billion annually. That would put the operation in the Fortune 500 and among the top five supermarket chains in the world. Alder Foods is a small but fast-growing supplier selling to the Defense Commissary Agency, called "deck-a," whose sales have tripled over the last 10 years to over $50 million this year.

"We sell national-branded foods to the military commissary bases all over the world, throughout the United States as well as Okinawa and Ramstein Air Base in Germany. We sell to well over 200 commissaries throughout the world.'' Alder specializes in handling the logistical challenges of transporting and distributing fresh and packaged dairy products, like Stonyfield Yogurt from New Hampshire, which Keating notes is "the only organic yogurt that we sell in the military today.'' Alder also has its own brand of frozen shrimp, Rainbow. "The challenge that we have is to try to find the right transportation to get product over to those outlying countries. Sometimes it's 10 days, sometimes three weeks depending on the country,'' Keating says.

Many places run by DCA look just like supermarkets, but for active duty personnel and retirees carrying military ID's, the great benefit is they typically charge 30 percent less than regular supermarkets.

Companies always want to give back, and Michelle Keating's giving back to the military members and retirees who are her customers. She's chairing a $3 million dollar fundraising drive to build a Fisher House free lodging facility at the West Roxbury, Mass., Veterans Administration hospital, for VA patients' families. "These are like Ronald McDonald houses. Their families get to stay there for free while their loved one is recuperating or going through the treatment that they need to go through.'' So far they have raised about $800,000 towards the goal of $3 million from local sources. Fisher House is a nationwide movement that has supported 43 free lodging places for VA patients' family members and visitors to military medical centers. The West Roxbury site will be the first Fisher House in New England.

"We are honored to be able to have a Fisher House in New England to service our [military] men and women and their families,'' Keating says. "It's just a tremendous opportunity that New England has to be able to give back to their men and women who have fought for our freedom.''

And, she has a unique summer fundraiser. "Every unit of CoffeeMate creamer or Nesquik chocolate milk that is sold in the commissary, one penny per unit will go to the Fisher House,'' Keating says. "We're looking at anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 that that will raise for the Fisher House.'' That is a lot of chocolate milk -- in fact, a donation of that size would represent 5 or 10 million bottles sold. Each one will be a small tribute to those who serve our soon to be 233-year-old nation.

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