NEW LEAF HISTORY
New Leaf was
founded at 11:00 am on Friday the 28th of May 1975
when Alim met with a distributor of East West Journal. They
formed a partnership to distribute the magazine and related “new
age” health and metaphysical titles to local stores. The idea
of distribution had come to Alim over a period of six weeks
while visiting the Hippocrates Health Institute, Dr. Ann
Wigmore’s “live foods” clinic in Boston. He had been a
“believer” in dietary healing but wished to experience it first
hand. While there, he had witnessed recoveries from such
supposedly incurable diseases as cancer, arthritis and heart
disease. Alim knew Dr. Ann’s books were not widely available
and wished to remedy that. As the idea germinated, the name
“Shakti Distributes” came to him while reading a book about
Swami Muktananda. Shakti means the feminine principle of
Godhead as it manifests as a spiritual force, which perfectly
fit what he wished the business to be.
Mis-informed that he could buy Dr. Ann’s books at thirty-three cents on the
dollar and wholesale them at sixty-six cents on the dollar, Alim
figured it would not take too much selling to support his simple
lifestyle. However, it made sense to sell some other
publications besides Dr. Ann’s books. A friend at the institute
knew Dr. Paavo Airola (Health Plus Publishers) and said, “He’s a
nice guy. He’ll let you distribute his books.” New Age Journal
was in only its second issue at the time having spun off of East
West Journal (which was at that time a tabloid sold in only a
few metropolitan areas). These seemed a natural fit, so Alim
called New Age and East West (both were based in Boston). He
learned that New Age was presently without a distributor having
shipped 200 copies to Atlanta that were sitting in someone’s
basement. (Things were so flaky in those days!) East West
already had a distributor named Jim Massey. When Alim returned
to Atlanta, he scheduled the May 28th meeting with
Jim.
At first, Shakti Distributes operated out of a broom closet at a long gone
hippie vegetarian restaurant. They began selling to the health
foods stores in Atlanta, and a few bookstores. Sevananda was one
of the first customers as was the Golden Pyramid owned by our
New Leaf co-worker, Sulaiman Nuriddin. It was not long before
they discovered that the margins on books was much smaller than
they had believed —17 ½% instead of 50%. Jim and Alim were
extremely naive and knew nothing of business—“too dumb to
quit—too dumb to know they were attempting the impossible.” But
they did realize the enterprise would have to grow to become
viable. By mid-summer it had grown into a 8’x15’ with 3’ of
headroom loft in the old Sevananda. Then in June of ’76 Shakti
went “big time” renting a $35 per month room on the second floor
of the Sevananda building. Jim retired in August and Alim
considered abandoning the struggle. Gross sales at the time
were about $500 per week. He had gone from a “laid back, odd
jobs” lifestyle to working 40-50 hour weeks on Shakti without
pay plus working odd jobs for income.
In January of 1977, Shakti hired its first person besides Alim. Each of them
was paid $35 per week. That summer the business moved to 979
Peachtree Street (now known as “Ancient Leaf”) paying $75 per
month as a “tenant at will.” Since it was on the busiest street
in the city, it seemed to make sense to open a storefront retail
outlet as well as the distributorship. The retail outlet (named
“The Smiling Forehead”) opened with one book each of the
distribution titles. Later that same year the name “New Leaf”
came during a meeting at a time when the outlook was
particularly bleak and co-workers wanted to change New Leaf
name. They were accusing Alim of being stuck because he would
not accept any of their suggestions. He said, “What we need is
a NEW LEAF.” Tom Braswell (who also created our logo) said,
“That’s it.”
More “MAGICK”
occurred with the coming of Ned Daughdrille. After being in
Atlanta a few months and unable to find a small alternative
business situation in which he could become a principle (he did
not want to start a company himself), he decided to take a job
in the computer industry. Having made this decision he returned
home to find a message to call someone named “Alim” (his name at
that time). Meanwhile, Alim’s only employee had just walked
out. It had become clear he needed a partner- someone who would
carry the responsibility equally and preferably someone with
computer experience plus some capital to invest. Ned had all
three.
In July of ’79
New Leaf moved to what we now call “Old Leaf” at 1081 Memorial
Drive, a building occupied on the lower level by Magnolia Co-op
Warehouse. Alim remembers experiencing its 5,000 square feet as
cavernous and thinking, “Wow! If our business could ever grow
this big!” The only way to afford the rent was to sub-lease some
of the space, so New Leaf moved in with C.W. Sprouts taking the
back third and the Soy Shop taking the middle third. (Ned made
this move happen because he was tired of banging his head on the
metal chimney that protruded from the six-foot ceiling in our
loft-office at Peachtree St.)
With the turning of a new decade, the summer of 1980 saw the arrival of
the first computer, and summer of ’81 saw the arrival of Rich
Bellezza and Judith Hawkins. Both had applied for the same job,
and New Leaf could not afford both—but the magical strength of
each proved New Leaf could not afford NOT to have both. The
business broke even for the first time the next year and gross
sales began doubling annually. Although there were no other
companies in the Southeast doing the distribution New Leaf was
trying to do, it took eight and a half years (until 1983) for
the business to show a profit. Just as Ned’s special genius
connected New Leaf’s systems to the computer age, Judith’s
insightful book buying made New Leaf a presence in the
metaphysical market place. Also her wisdom and guidance have
been part of New Leaf’s foundation ever since she arrived.
When Rich arrived, New Leaf was still a floundering concoction of ideas
and ideals, missing some of the nuts, bolts, legs and energy.
Rich says, “The 80 hour week for $80.00 was so simple it was
appealing.” As have many before and after him, Rich discovered
all of his business and personal experiences up to that time
seemed to prepare him for what New Leaf needed.
Other key figures in New Leaf’s growth and prosperity are as follows: Jeri
Denham, a member before Judith and Rich who left but returned to
the fold and brought the beginnings of detail and organization
to the business; Larry Enlow, whose energy made it possible to
offer same day service to our customers for the first time;
Patrick Gaffney who was the first person to completely develop
himself in the areas of customer service for which New Leaf is
noted; Maurice LeCroy, whose efforts were responsible for
opening up new markets for New Leaf especially in Music;
Apolonia Fortino, a dynamic force who helped manifest the years
of doubling growth; and Annie Crutcher, who professionalized the
art and promotion departments and is responsible for the
creation of the New Leaf look.
In 1983, eight and a half years after its inception, New Leaf showed its first
profit and moved from the upstairs warehouse to a new location
at 1020 White Street (now called “Middle Leaf”). With an
expanding inventory, catalogs, and sales that were now doubling
annually, New Leaf became a major new age marketing force in the
publishing industry. The business grew rapidly at the White
Street location until the move in 1987 to 5425 Tulane Drive.
Also in 1987 the alternate corporate identity of Al Wali
(the Friend) was developed. New Leaf had grown to thirty
something employees and now utilized eight-Watts lines for
orders. From 1987 to 1995 New Leaf’s staff grew from 30 plus
employees to 90 employees, and annual sales skyrocketed to 30
million by 1994.
In 1990, five New Leaf employees offered shares of their stock to form the New
Leaf Employee Stock Ownership Plan. The company from the
beginning had maintained ownership among the employees. In the
early years when the company was losing money and there was no
money for compensation, equity was given in the form of company
stock. The formation of the ESOP formalized this practice and
provided a vehicle to extend ownership to many more employees as
the company grew. The ESOP grew to where it owned 49% of the
company stock. Over the years from 1990 until 2001 when the ESOP
was frozen, well over 100 people became employee owners.
1993 saw the departure of Alim as he felt he had contributed what he could
and that the company needed different leadership. He felt that
changes in the industry would require New Leaf to be run
differently than it had been, and he left to pursue other
interests. Rich became CEO as well as CFO and COO.
In 1995, New Leaf took another leap, which landed her in a new home at 401
Thornton Road in Lithia Springs, Georgia. The warehouse sits
on over 5 acres of land with 90,000 square feet of operational
space. With this move came more technological advances,
particularly in the order fulfillment processes, including the
use of scanners, a conveyor system and zone picking.
In its new home, New Leaf continued to prosper reaching sales of around $28
million. However, with the advent of online bookselling and the
chain superstores, the industry changed dramatically. Many of
the smaller stores could no longer compete and so began an
erosion of the New Leaf customer base. Also Rich became
progressively more ill with a rare blood disease and was unable
provide the necessary energy to guide New Leaf in an
increasingly more difficult environment. The business began a
steady decline in 1997.
It became apparent that New Leaf needed an infusion of energy in the form
of executive talent and capital. Rich began courting possible
merger partners that could provide both. The years 1999 through
2002 saw a number of suitors calling, and in preparation for a
sale, the closing of the ESOP was begun. However no feasible
deal was found, and Rich finally said the business would close
if there was no suitable buyer by the end of 2002.
Tragically in October of 2002, Rich passed away after a long battle with a
rare blood disease. He was wholeheartedly committed to New
Leaf’s mission of “providing informational material and related
items that foster learning, personal awakening, spiritual growth
and healing in our selves and others,” and he gave his energy to
it right up until the end. Respected and loved by many, he was
known for his soft-spoken nature, big heart and great
generosity. He had gained great stature in the Douglasville
community and his memorial was attended by hundreds of people.
With Rich’s passing, it was truly New Leaf’s darkest hour. Alim, who was now
living 200 miles away in Alabama, came to the Al-Wali board and
offered his help. He presented a turnaround plan to the board
that was adopted and he was appointed interim CEO as of November
1, 2002 and charged with implementing the first phase of the
plan. At the same time, Alim and the board endeavored to find a
buyer.
By late December a deal was struck with industry veterans Santosh and
Karuna Krinsky and in January 2003 it was announced that New
Leaf was under new ownership. Shakti, LLC, controlled by the
Krinskys, acquired 100% of the corporate stock of Al-Wali Corp.,
the parent company of New Leaf Distributing.
Santosh has been in the book industry for 29 years, specializing in
body/mind/spirit titles. He started Lotus Light Enterprises, a
wholesaler of natural health and wellness products; Lotus
Brands, a manufacturer of products inspired by nature; and Lotus
Press, a publishing company that focuses on alternative health
and wellness information. Santosh had been on the New Leaf
"Board of Dreamers," an advisory board, for a number of years
and had a very close relationship to New Leaf virtually from the
time of its founding. He and Alim had been friends for many
years and were confident that they could work well together to
take New Leaf forward.
Santosh stated his goals for the company at the time of closing: "New Leaf is
an outstanding leader in the field of metaphysical, spiritual
and wellness information. In today’s troubled times, it is more
important than ever that a company such as New Leaf is strong,
vibrant and leading the way in providing this information. I am
truly humbled by the trust that has been reposed in me and have
dedicated myself to continuing to build New Leaf in the future
together with its outstanding team of people and in
collaboration with New Leaf’s many customers and vendors."
Alim was named President and CEO, and put in charge of day-to-day operations of
the company. He brought his passion and enthusiasm along with
his intimate knowledge of the operations and the needs of the
customers. Alim immediately appointed Santosh as CFO and
together they make up the company’s executive team.
After the low point of 2002 in which the company lost nearly $700,000, 2003
saw a profit of around $200,000, and New Leaf is well on its
road to financial stability. Everyone is looking forward again
and there are many plans underway to make New Leaf a greater and
greater force for good.