Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) has reached an agreement with Bellingham, Washington-headquartered Sound Beverage Distributors to acquire brand rights to A-B’s portfolio and other products.
The deal expands operations for A-B ONE, the company’s network of wholly owned distributors.
“Anheuser-Busch’s owned distribution operations are a strategic part of our business as they enable us to test and learn, develop our people, and ultimately serve as stronger partners to our independent distributors,” A-B said in a statement. “Sound Beverage has been a valued partner for more than 60 years and we look forward to continuing to provide world-class service to our retail customers across northwest Washington.”
In addition to A-B’s portfolio, Sound Beverage carries craft brands from the Pacific Northwest (Aslan, Fort George, No-Li, Ninkasi, Bale Breaker, Von Ebert, Icicle, Leavenworth Biers, Black Raken, Iron Horse, Diamond Knot, Laurelwood, Narrows, Wander, Kulshan), California (Sierra Nevada, Mother Earth, Stone) and elsewhere (Founders, Alaskan, Montucky Cold Snacks, Left Hand, Abita, Avery).
Sound Beverage’s book also includes hard seltzer and flavored malt beverages such as White Claw, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Cayman Jack, AriZona Hard, Ashland Hard Seltzer, Happy Dad and Bellingham Seltzer. The distributor sells wine (Copa di Vino, Beatbox), hard cider (Ace, Avid, Lost Giants, Bellingham Cider, Yonder), hard kombucha (Strainge Beast, JuneShine, Flying Embers, Boochcraft) and non-alcoholic products.
A-B’s acquisition of the rights to these other brands is subject to supplier approval, an A-B spokesperson told Brewbound. Sound sells about 1 million cases annually, of which 300,000 are A-B products, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights.
Sound Beverage serves Whatcom, Skagit and Island counties, which stretch from about 70 miles north of Seattle to the Canadian border. A-B operates a wholly owned branch in Renton, a suburb of Seattle.
Job listings for a sales manager, sales representative, driver and merchandiser in Bellingham were posted to A-B’s website on Thursday.
The move marks a departure from A-B’s wholly owned distributor playbook, which has largely involved divesting of the properties to independent wholesalers in recent years. In August 2024, A-B sold its branches in Boston, Massachusetts, and Canton, Ohio, to Quality Beverage and Columbus Distributing, respectively.
A-B has engaged in a series of deals involving its wholly owned distribution branches in recent years, beginning with a flurry of activity in 2020. That year, it sold its Oakland, California, distribution facility to a commercial real estate developer in May, swapped territories with Heimark Distributing in Southern California in July, and sold its wholly owned Colorado branch to Norcross, Georgia-based Eagle Rock Distributing in September.
Although most of the 2020 activity involved spinning off distributors, A-B also acquired Los Angeles-based Ace Beverage that fall.
The sales continued two years later, when A-B sold its Northern California operations to two independent wholesalers in its network, Markstein Sales Company and Matagrano, Inc. in July 2022. Two months later, A-B sold its Lima, Ohio, operation to Ohio Eagle Distributing.
As of January 2022, A-B’s wholly owned network sold about 7% of its volume, under its 10% cap, A-B U.S. CEO Brendan Whitworth shared during Beer Business Daily’s Beer Industry Summit. A-B’s own network accounted for as much as 9% of its volume in 2016, according to a letter the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) sent the Department of Justice (DOJ) to comment on the proposed A-B/SABMiller merger. At the time the NBWA called into question the veracity of A-B’s self-reported volume flowing through its own network.