Home Refresh on a Budget • Lighting Your Life • Customizing Your Fireplace S u b s c r i b e b y v i s i t i n g w w w.l a ke a n d h o m e m a g a z i n e.c o m
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designer portfolio
DESIGNER PORTFOLIO
photos provided by Alex Brick & Stone
Established in 1998 by Wayne and Nancy Jenzen with a goal of being a local contractors’ showroom, Alex Brick & Stone Inc. has come a long way since opening its doors out of a shed on Nokomis Street in Alexandria, Minn. Twenty years later, the business boasts a phenomenal show room where it currently resides on 22nd Ave., just east of the Alexandria airport. Alex Brick & Stone has become one of Central Minnesota’s top suppliers of fireplaces, and products for masonry, landscape, geosynthetic, and erosion control, and even more so now that it has a sister company in Willmar, Minnesota called Lake Country Fireplace & Exteriors Inc.
photo by Lowell Anderson // Echo Press
We recently spoke with Neil Jenzen of Alex Brick & Stone about the past, present, and future of this successful business. How did Alex Brick & Stone begin? My father, Wayne Jenzen, was a secondgeneration mason contractor who had been in sales at a local brickyard in the early 90s. When the company he worked for was liquidated to a St. Cloud location in 1997, he had the opportunity to start his own masonry supply center. Within a
year of opening, they were able to move to the old Olson produce building and introduced gas and wood fireplaces. The showroom there provided room for many displays for customers to make their project selections. The year 2001 saw another move to Nokomis Street, with more outdoor space for the growing landscape supply division. In 2002, I moved back to Alexandria permanently and began working full-time at Alex Brick & Stone with the dream of taking on the family tradition. Finally, in 2008, not only did we move to our current location which provides great indoor and outdoor space, but we also opened a second location in Willmar, Minn: Lake Country Fireplace & Exteriors. My father retired in 2014 and so I’ve taken on his legacy at Alex Brick & Stone. Joel Peterson, who brings many years of experience in the masonry, landscape and fireplace fields, joined me in the Lake Country Fireplace & Exteriors side of the business.
What aspects of owning the business help you wake up and want to go to work each morning? It is fun and challenging to maintain a growing business, and yet understand the need to keep the business flexible to meet various needs of the customers. I also really enjoy working and collaborating with Joel and my employees. At a real high level, though, there is not much that is more rewarding than exceeding a customers expectations. If you were to describe your ideal project, what would it look like? Finding an “ideal project” is a bit challenging as things can vary so much from one customer to another. At the end of the day, it is more about being able to harmonize the customer’s entire project. We really enjoy getting to know people, so when someone visits us with a set of plans and we get the opportunity to be a part of their entire project, we feel it is a win. Often times, a project can go down many different roads and so if we are able to help those roads meet at a final
destination, we have a better opportunity to make a customer happy. Overall, if we can get involved right from the beginning of a project, that’s ideal for us and the customer. What innovations/changes do you see coming over the next 5-10 years? If you look at Pinterest, Houzz, or any other social media avenue, one can easily see their impact on creating trends. Your imagination and budget are about the only limitations I can think of when it comes to what can be done in our
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business. While there are only so many things you can do to make a brick look different or go on the wall faster, what and how one can use them in landscaping is constantly changing. For example, outdoor creations such as fireplaces, pizza ovens, accents, and other options are increasing all the time. Erosion control products and methods, especially in this area with all the lakes, streams, and rivers, will be seeing more significant changes in the coming years as building codes are constantly evolving. What are the biggest factors which have led to success within your business? There is a beauty to the Alexandria lakes area in that there is a solid local economy, with many industries providing good jobs to allow people to move to the area. The surrounding lakes also attract new construction and remodels. We have great
building contractors and subcontractors that build healthy businesses. We also enjoy building and maintaining good relationships with them. Finally, I-94 provides easy access to the area from larger metropolitain areas. For someone looking to Alex Brick & Stone for help with a project, what advice would you pass along? One of the most important things in working on a project is to have good communication with your contractors and sub-contractors. We have a talented team at both locations who would be more than happy to help at any stage of the project. We have indoor and outdoor displays, along with a talented and experienced sales team, to help our customers make selections. Additionally, we have trained fireplace installers and service technicians. If given the opportunity, we are confident you will enjoy your experience and be happy with the outcome of your project. ~L&H