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Trailblazer keeps family business trucking

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Photo by Dan Lassiter

Debra Alder, CEO of Alder Companies has won a Governor's award-Trailblazer and Torch award for her work with the Delavan trucking company.

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Debra J. Alder

DELAVAN — She doesn’t love being called a “pioneer” because she thinks it makes her sound a little old.

But Debra Alder did get her start in the business “way” back, when it still was OK to ride on a milk crate on the back of Dad’s company truck.

And “way” back when computers were huge things with 6-inch screens.

For 27 years of sticking with it, Alder is one of 12 businesswomen in Wisconsin to win the 2009 Governor’s Trailblazer Awards for Women in Business.

Trailblazer awards honor women pioneers in the business community, according to the Wisconsin Women’s Council. Awards go to businesses owned by a woman or a group of women for more than 25 years.

Alder also was awarded a Torch Award for being the owner of a family business that’s been running for three generations or more.

Alder is the CEO of Alder Companies, headquartered at 903 Geneva St., Delavan. The business hauls milk products, and Alder’s biggest customer is Dean Foods. Alder Companies delivers product from Dean to grocery stores and food service locations.

Drivers also haul milk and products between Dean plants and do work for other companies, Alder said.

Alder Companies has three other locations—Chemung, Ill.; Huntley, Ill., and Sheboygan.

Alder had to think for a second when asked about her title.

“My title is CEO, probably,” Alder said. “But we’re not very good at that. It’s not very formal around here.”

Alder’s first official position at Alder Companies, which was founded by her grandfather in 1921, was as an office manager in 1982.

She wrote a formal letter to then-CEO George Alder, her father, stating her interest in the job.

George interviewed Debra for the position. Her first duty on the job was installing the company’s first computer.

Before being hired in an official capacity, Alder worked for her dad through high school as a “go-fer” in the summers, she said.

She graduated in 1973 from Delavan-Darien High School and went on to earn a degree in home economics education from UW-Madison. She interned at Craig High School in 1977 and went on to be a teacher for two years.

She traveled with her husband, who was in the U.S. Navy, before deciding to come home to the family business.

Alder didn’t have advice specifically for other female business owners. All business owners—men and women—need to give their employees flexibility in the workplace, she said.

To keep quality people, you need to let them work around their lives and their families’ needs, Alder said.

Flexibility also helps her 110 employees commit to the community service projects she encourages, Alder said.

“We have deadlines,” Alder said. “You might not think we could be flexible, since the trucking industry seems so regulated and regimented. But people have different schedules, times. Some want 40 hours. Some want 55. Some want 20. All that allows us the flexibility we need.”

The best part about being a small-business owner is the diversity in her daily responsibilities, Alder said.

“One day you’re making huge decisions,” Alder said. “The next day, you’re dumping the garbage and picking up the yard.”

4.49 million

Miles driven by the Alder Companies in the past year

113,675

Orders delivered from the four Alder Companies locations each year

11.23

Average years of service for current Alder employees

400

Number of Alder Companies customers in the Midwest