History
The Veld Group began as a small, family oriented Nevada based real estate and consulting firm established in 1976 by Jacob Wildeveld and his daughter-in-law, Mary Wildeveld. During these early days of Las Vegas’s explosive growth phase, Jacob focused on commercial real estate acquisitions and investments, while Mary focused on property management and commercial retail, office and warehouse leasing. In 1996, this loosely organized operation’s suite of services grew to include residential project development and time-share sales and management between 1986 and 1992.
The next phase of The Veld Group’s growth occurred between 1996 and 1999, when Jacob’s grandson Michael Wildeveld, brought Veld Consulting to Southern California. Veld Consulting offered private mid-market clients (companies with $5.0 ml to $100 ml. in revenues) a unique retainer-based Board of Directory style advisory service that was administered by The Veld Group, and carried out in conjunction with an assembled team of over 140 consulting professionals. Veld Consulting offered its clients full-scale engagements in the areas of Corporate Strategy (growth strategy development and implementation, industry analysis, competitive analysis, value-chain analysis, corporate recovery), Marketing (brand building, pricing strategy, competitive analysis, new product development, distribution strategy, advertising analysis), Operations (efficiency studies, controls assessments), and Finance (audit, budgeting, financial analysis, capital appropriation, metrics and scorecard development, ratio analysis, valuations). Veld consulting differentiated itself via its unique revenue model, the breadth of services its team allowed it to offer, and most importantly, its insistence on participation in the implementation of its recommendations. Though not always in their target client base, Veld Consulting’s most well known clients included Jordan’s Queen Noor (business plan, brand building, economic development), El Salvador’s Ministry of Finance (brand building, economic development), The Landmine Survivor’s Network (a Nobel Price winning non-profit organization - growth strategy, brand building), and Fred Alger Management (business plan).
Mr. Ryan Clark, a seasoned Sales and Marketing expert and childhood friend of the Wildeveld family, joined Veld Consulting in 1999. Mr. Clark was instrumental in paring down the organization’s size and service offering, while simultaneously developing a sales force that focused on the firm’s most marketable consulting products – Business Valuations and Business Plans. Veld Consulting’s success with these products led to its merger with San Diego based Integrity Valuations and Business Consulting in 2002, and the birth of Veld Valuations. Integrity Valuations, which also included an accounting practice that managed the investment and financial divisions for some of San Diego’s most successful restaurants and nightclubs (including the Side Bar, Stingaree and Confidential Restaurant and Loft) was led by another close childhood friend of the Wildeveld’s and Ryan Clark, Mr. Robert A. Rodriguez, C.P.A.
With the addition of Mr. Rodriguez, whose accounting and consulting experience included the management of syndicated investment groups, Veld Valuation created the “Mini-Valuation” and the “Preliminary Estimate of Value.” These abbreviated valuations were offered for less than $3,500 and positioned to eliminate the costly valuations marketed by questionable mergers and acquisitions companies. With the firm’s accumulated experience and knowledge, Veld Valuation also began offering expert testimony services in the court system, and developed a niche for defending business owner’s property and business values in eminent domain matters. In late 2003, The Veld Group realized that many former clients, who had engaged The Veld Group for consulting and valuation projects, were regularly reporting that they had put their business on the market with a traditional business brokerage or mergers and acquisitions firm, only to have it remain on the market for years, sell for a fraction of its fair market value, or not sell at all. The Veld Group’s senior staff recognized that there was a significant unmet market need in the Mid-Market Mergers and Acquisitions Industry and Business Brokerage Industry (which caters to the sales of ‘main street’ businesses, or those companies that typically generate less than $5.0 ml. in revenues). The Veld Group utilized its consulting expertise and conducted an unprecedented industry analysis that identified each industry’s shortcomings and developed a business plan to remedy the substantial flaws in each industry’s traditional business models.
With a significant pre-existing mid-market client base already in place, and professional staff that was largely comprised of consultants, accountants, attorneys, as well as former mergers and acquisitions specialists and investment bankers, The Veld Group obtained its brokerage license and embarked on a journey that returned it to the firm’s commercial real estate roots. The Veld Group established an immediate presence in several core mid-market industries, with several notable ‘done deals’ to boast of within a few years:
Food and Beverage Manufacturing and Distribution
• Otra Beer, Don Pedro Meats, Allen Wertz Candies, Crown City Confections, Hollywood Chocolatier, Jim Terry Chocolates, Golda and I Chocolates, Vitabuys Vitamins, Iwasaki Images of America, Yours Hakucho Produce Distribution
Manufacturing (with patented technology or intellectual property rights)
• Pathfinder Technology, Kool Fog Engineering, JEC Integration, the Hair Design Center, Rainbow Retainers, Wiz Communications, Promise Technologies, Horita Scientific Equipment, Chubby Chassis
Non-Perishable Manufacturing and Distribution
• Uncle Mike Surfboards, Sugarmill Glass Company, California Cleaning Supply, Connetquot West, Down to Earth Furniture, Caskets for Less
Commercial Printing, Direct Mail and Publishing – Service and Manufacturing
• Executive Lithograph, The Mail Center, Inland Presort, Trans-Caucus Mail, Printing and Shipping, Creative Screenwriting Magazine, Star Signs International
Clothing Manufacturing and Distribution
• Malini Lingerie, Off Melrose, Madison Blu Clothing
Transportation Services
• Shalimar Tours and Charters, Onyx Transportation, Lion Transportation, Interstate Pumping, AAA Limousine Service
During the same period in which the firm experienced explosive growth in its core industry segments, nearly all of which centered on manufacturing, Michael Wildeveld purchased a tanning salon as a passive income generator for his mother. Though he had no industry experience, Michael conducted a study of the indoor tanning industry, appreciated the simplistic business model and recognized that the industry’s dynamics made it ripe for consolidation due to the economies of scale that existed in marketing, equipment and retail product purchasing. Once it acquired first hand knowledge of the mechanics of operating a successful salon, The Veld Group developed best practices formulas for success and began to ‘turn-round’ failing salons (as it had previously done with distressed print shops).
The Veld Group soon became entrenched in the fragmented indoor tanning industry. While the firm sought to engage in an industry roll-up, it sought to avoid a channel conflict within its brokerage practice and remain focused on its fundamental activities. Instead, The Veld Group coupled its industry knowledge with its brokerage expertise and assisted buyers in creating many of California’s largest indoor tanning chains via acquisition. As of March 2008, The Veld Group had sold 150 indoor tanning salons (in 7 states and 3 countries) representing over $25 ml. in transaction value. The Veld Group has also been responsible for expanding the Unique Tan chain from a four salon chain to a twelve salon operation stretching from Santa Barbara to Orange County, assisted Darque Tan (the largest nationwide private salon chain with 85 locations) in expanding from 2 to 8 Southern California locations, and recently helped Palm Beach Tan (the largest nationwide indoor tanning franchisor) enter the California market by placing one of their franchisee’s into a formidable 8 salon chain. True to its consulting roots, The Veld Group has also been called in as consultants on many industry projects, including sell side consultancy on a 52 location sale to a national franchisor, and is a regular attendant or presenter at annual industry events.
While conventional wisdom would suggest that The Veld Group took an irregular step backwards by intentionally moving “down-market” into main street business sales, the firm found that the exact opposite was the case. Michael Wildeveld notes “when we sell a $15 ml. manufacturing firm, the Seller’s and Buyer’s Counsel, Chief Financial Officers and Accountants become instrumental in the process, and the Broker providing sell-side advisory becomes more of a referee ‘quarterbacking’ the sale, rather an active manufacturer of it. The strategic components certainly exist, however, they are distributed among a number of segregated, and often disinterested, specialists. When we’re creating a new chain of main street businesses, or helping an owner take their business to the next level via acquisition, we’re fully engaged in a consulting role authoring (formally or informally) and implementing a business plan. Our role becomes that of advisor, negotiator and psychologist – oftentimes for both the buyer and seller (though we almost always only represent sellers to avoid being conflicted). While we leveraged our prior skill sets in real estate, investment banking and mergers and acquisitions to return to the brokerage industry in 2003, we are still a consulting firm at heart.” Much as had occurred in the Food and Beverage Manufacturing and Distribution, Commercial Printing industries, and later the Indoor Tanning Industries The Veld Group came to also take a dominant position in Day Spa and Medical Spa brokerage, as well as fitness center brokerage, due to the complementary nature of their buyer pool, revenue models, and location attributes.
The Veld Group entered main street Restaurant, Bar and Nightclub brokerage in 2005, when A.J. Wildeveld, Jacob Wildeveld’s son, did his first stint with his family’s firm. A.J. was a seasoned restaurateur who had helped bring the prominent Sambo’s coffee shop chain to Illinois, Indiana and Michigan in 1970. In 1972, A.J. launched “Fat Albert’s,” a Chicago based family coffee shop chain that eventually had 21 locations. A.J. also opened 3 fine dining restaurants prior to relocating to Las Vegas in 1976, where he went on to operate a number of bar, restaurant, hotel and gaming venues, in addition to launching a variety of companies ranging from sales organizations to clothing companies to automobile dealerships.
Ryan Clark, The Veld Group’s Sales Director whose father once owned an 110,000 square foot bar, restaurant and billiards hall, taught A.J. the dynamics of the business brokerage industry. A.J., in turn, taught Mr. Clark ever facet of the hospitality industry. While A.J.’s tenure at his family’s firm was short lived, the knowledge he shared with Mr. Clark serves him until this day – as Ryan Clark now sells more Southern California Restaurants, Bars and Nightclubs than the competing industry leaders combined. With the unparalleled contributions of Ryan Clark throughout Southern California, coupled with Robert Rodriguez’s enviably industry experience and sales record in the Greater San Diego market and Los Angeles (including the Spanish Speaking business sales segment), The Veld Group has added the hospitality industry as the latest industry that it come to dominant. As a result of its significant marketing efforts, including historical sponsorship of the California Restaurant Association, regular contributors to the Western Food Service Expositions (with a trade booth presence, as well as by providing seminars and instruction to prospective business buyers and sellers) The Veld Group sold over 50 bars, restaurants and nightclubs in 2008, adding to the 100 plus hospitality industry venues it has sold since its 2005. In keeping with its tradition of gaining first hand knowledge of the core industries it touts to specialize in, The Veld Group partnered in the real-estate purchase of a 5 story, 45,000 square foot bar, restaurant, nightclub, and live music venue.
Well known hospitality venues that The Veld Group has sold (or sold locations to) include: The Derby, Club Blue / Element, Jimmy’s Lounge, Masquers Cabaret to L.A. Food Court, Vito’s Pizza, Zita / Magnolia, Cafe 50’s, Magnolia, Rudolpho’s / Home, El Greco, Pinky’s BBQ, Cafe Boogaloo, Club Sachi, Margarita Rocks / Bar West, Wild Sage / La Puerta, Crush Bar, Daddio’s / Dirty Birds, Dino’s / Bar Pink Elephant, Game Time Tavern, etc.
As 2008 came to a close, The Veld Group’s Sale Director Ryan Clark described the firm as “a consulting firm that engages in business brokerage and sell side advisory services in the middle-market business sales”. When asked what industries The Veld Groups specialized in, Mr. Clark answered that at any time the firm has 70 bars, restaurants and nightclubs on the market, 50 indoor tanning salons, 15 manufacturing or distribution firms, and a healthy mix of 15 – 30 other main street retail and service businesses. We seek to sell solid, profitable businesses that offer a unique value proposition and have a sustainable business model. Oftentimes, the value of any company, large or small, may be hidden amongst its assets. It may be a company’s patents, client base, manufacturing capability, distribution network, licenses and use permits, or simply in its location, property, entitlements, or facility lease. “I’m currently negotiating the sale of 40 year old name publisher (similar to Readers Digest) that is published in 4 languages, and distributed at 16,000 grocery store check-out stands in 12 countries. Despite its tremendous brand equity, the asset that the buyers are most interested in is the C-Corporation’s $2.6 million net operating loss carry forward and its coveted P.O. Box. While the value of any given firm is typically a function of it net profits, oftentimes profits only tell a portion of the story. I’m a strong believer that there is a buyer for every business, the trick is to have the marketing resources, wherewithal, and determination to locate that buyer in every sale” stated Mr. Clark. It is this exact sentiment, which is shared by each of his colleagues, that has led to The Veld Group’s unprecedented track record of selling 82% of their business listings within their engagement period. Many firms boast higher ‘close’ percentages; however, these firms typically sell fewer than 12 companies per annum. At The Veld Group, each contributor regularly puts in a 60 plus hour workweek. “We’re not as successful as we are because we accept our client’s lunch requests and golf initiations, and we don’t have time to knock on doors” remarks Robert Rodriguez, CPA. “We’re successful because we sit at our desks 10 hours per day, speak to hundreds of prospective buyers to sell each company that we have on the market, and offer our sellers, prospective buyers and their advisors more industry-specific and brokerage knowledge than they will ever possibly find elsewhere”.
The Veld Group are proud members of the International Business Brokers Association (IBBA), The California Association of Business Brokers (CABB), The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), The National Association of Valuation Analysts (NACVA), The American Institute of Business Appraisers (IBA), The American Society of Appraisers (ASA), The Center for Economic and Industry Research (CEIR), and The Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and San Diego Better Business Bureaus. Veld Group professionals are also members of the California and Nevada Bar Associations.