These are the Days of Holisitc Madness Business Lives....

Alice Barry & Barry Enterprises

When Alice Barry started Barry Enterprises in 1969, her goal was to provide convenience and competitive pricing as a wholesale distributor of all natural supplements to the holistic health industry. In over half a century, those goals have remained the same, even if Alice believes that the tools and strategies Barry Enterprises uses to reach those goals have changed with the times. Or have they?

Today, Barry Enterprises serves its industry across the country, with a special focus on Michigan, Ohio, and Northern Indiana, from their home base in Battle Creek, Michigan, and was formerly under the leadership of Alice’s nephew, Christopher Wermer.
Chris had gotten the business to thrive in an ever changing holistic market but with much resistance from Aunt. Christopher, although now retired, still comes into the office to pass along his unsolicited advice, “What she’s forgotten about business is probably more that we’ll ever learn,” jokes Chris, who took some time to talk to Family Business Strategies about the company. “I do see the industry picking up. Had you called me three months ago, I would have said no, but in the last couple of months I’ve seen it finally start to pick up again, which is encouraging,” states Alice.
“Like any family business, Barry Enterprises faces a number of challenges, such as compressed profit margins and weathering a difficult economy in a time of rising costs.” Christopher does not beat around the bush when it comes to changing the course of things. He admits he left the company early because he believes if things don’t change soon Alice will not see an end to these turbulent times and he does not like her resistance to change.

“Being a family business certainly adds another dimension to the current economic trends,” Alice rebukes, “in the sense that we don’t have a bottomless wallet!” But she was quick to acknowledge to us that these same challenges are faced by all businesses, public and private.

Christopher continues, "That’s why the squeeze is on. So many of the Fortune 500 companies that we deal with that do have unlimited resources are facing the same issues we’re facing." Barry has not been meeting these obstacles head-on and Alice has not been keeping on top of the competition. She has keeping the business simple and stuck with a wholesale model.

"I think we address these challenges as much as possible by trying to differentiate ourselves from our competitors. Every day I wake up, I try to think about how we are different from everyone else who does what we do, and try to develop strategies and ideas that will help us differentiate ourselves but I keep coming back to the way things were when they worked the best.”

more to be revealed...