Our Story
About Alden Foods
Saint-Laurent, Quebec | Serving Montreal’s Food Industry Since 1994
Every morning, the call comes in around six. A restaurant needs product for service that night. The order isn’t complicated—salmon, some ikura, maybe whitefish if it’s available. But the voice on the other end carries weight that has nothing to do with the dollar amount.
It’s Thursday. Service happens whether the fish arrives or not. If it doesn’t, the chef rewrites the menu, disappoints guests, loses the revenue those dishes would’ve brought. If it does but the quality isn’t there, they serve it anyway and hope nobody notices, or they pull it and lose the night either way.
There’s no margin for error. Not in this business.
For thirty one years, Alden Foods has answered that call the same way: the product arrives, it’s what was promised, and the kitchen runs the menu they planned.
That’s not a marketing claim. That’s how wholesale distribution works when you refuse to treat it like commodity logistics.
How Standards Get Built
In 1994, when Alden Foods opened in Saint-Laurent, the wholesale food distribution landscape in Montreal looked like it does in most cities: a few big players moving volume, some smaller operations filling gaps, and a lot of restaurants navigating the same frustration.
The product that shows up isn’t always the product you ordered. The quality shifts week to week depending on what the distributor’s supplier sent them. Sustainable sourcing is a nice idea until it costs more or creates supply chain friction, and then it quietly disappears from the catalog.
Alden started with a different premise: what if the standard didn’t move?
Not “what if we tried really hard to maintain quality most of the time.” What if quality wasn’t negotiable, ever, even when it cost more or required saying no to business?
That meant building relationships with suppliers who shared the commitment.
Purvis Fisheries has been fishing Lake Huron since 1882—multiple generations of the same family working the same waters. Their whitefish and lake trout get processed dockside, sometimes within hours of leaving the net. The kind of operation where “fresh” isn’t marketing language, it’s just timing.
Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation for wild-caught walleye, pike, whitefish from pristine Canadian lakes. Sustainably harvested under strict government quotas, handled with care from water to delivery.
Wild-caught Pacific salmon ikura that meets every sustainability certification that matters: OceanWise, SeaChoice, Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch. Not because certifications open new markets, but because they verify what should already be true.
It meant carrying Kosher certified and organic certified products not because they opened new markets, but because operators in Montreal serve diverse communities with specific needs, and quality doesn’t change based on certification requirements.
It meant turning down suppliers who offered better pricing but couldn’t verify their sourcing. It meant keeping inventory lean because moving volume wasn’t the goal—moving the right product was.
The business grew anyway. Not despite the standards, but because of them.
What Partnership Actually Means
Most wholesale distributors position themselves as partners. It’s standard language in the industry. But partnership implies reciprocity—both sides bring something to the relationship beyond transaction.
Alden’s version of partnership is simple: we understand what you’re trying to do, and we don’t make it harder.
When a chef calls about sourcing, they’re not asking out of curiosity. They’re asking because a guest asked them, or because they’re trying to build a menu around a story that matters, or because they need to verify a claim before they put it in print.
“Where does this whitefish come from?” isn’t a philosophical question. It’s a practical one. And the answer can’t be vague.
Purvis Fisheries, Lake Huron. Family-operated since 1882. Caught and processed dockside. Delivered fresh.
That’s the answer. Specific, verifiable, the kind of response that makes the next conversation easier instead of harder.
The same goes for availability. Kitchens don’t have time for suppliers who treat “we’ll try to get that for you” as an acceptable response. If it’s available, say yes. If it’s not, say no and offer an alternative that actually works. Don’t make the chef do the work of managing your supply chain uncertainty.
This is what partnership looks like in practice: reducing friction, providing clarity, showing up consistently.
It’s not dramatic. It’s just reliable. And in an industry where reliability is rare, it’s worth something.
The Question That Defines Everything
Every distributor makes decisions about what to carry and what to pass on. Those decisions reveal priorities.
Alden’s decision has always been the same: would we serve this ourselves?
Not “could we sell this.” Not “does this hit a price point.” Would we put this on a plate in our own kitchen and feel good about it?
If the answer is no, it doesn’t go in the catalog. If the answer is yes, it gets the same treatment as everything else—sourced carefully, handled properly, delivered as promised.
That’s why the caviar selection isn’t the biggest in Montreal, but it’s one of the most trusted. Why the seafood list doesn’t include every species available, but the ones that are there meet standards most distributors don’t bother with. Why the organic and Kosher certified products aren’t afterthoughts buried in the back of the catalog—they’re part of the core offering.
It’s a narrow approach. It limits growth. It means saying no more than most distributors would tolerate.
But it also means that when an operator orders from Alden Foods, they know what they’re getting. Not just the product—the standard behind it.
Thirty one Years of Not Moving
The market has changed since 1994. Guest expectations are higher. Sustainability matters more. Supply chains are more fragile. Certification requirements are stricter. Pricing is tighter.
But the standard at Alden hasn’t moved.
Same commitment to sourcing. Same refusal to compromise on quality. Same understanding that operators don’t need another distributor offering slightly cheaper versions of the same products everyone else carries.
They need someone who answers the phone, delivers what was promised, and makes the “where does this come from” conversation easy instead of uncomfortable.
That’s what Alden Foods has done for a quarter century.
Not because it’s noble. Because it’s the only version of this business worth doing.
The standard doesn’t move
Alden Foods Inc.
Saint-Laurent, Quebec
For wholesale inquiries, sample requests, or partnership discussions:
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