Michigan-based beverage-alcohol platform Benchmark Beverage Company has taken a minority investment in Blake’s Beverage Co. and the two companies have launched a commercial partnership.
Benchmark (Dark Horse, Roak, Brew Detroit, Great America) and Blake’s Beverage Co. (Blake’s Hard Cider, Austin Eastciders, Avid Cider) aim to “accelerate growth and shake up the beyond-beer category with fresh innovation and national scale,” according to a press release.
“We’re actually taking the next step and utilizing their national distribution footprint as much as we can with some of our items in hopes of working closely together,” Benchmark CEO Auday Arabo told Brewbound. “If it works out, who knows, in two or three years what the next steps may be? But we put the ring on the finger so we’re engaged, and we’re seeing each other out – a couple of years from now, we may get married, we may not.”
After nearly a decade in spirits production and importing, Benchmark began to build a cross-category bev-alc platform when it acquired Marshall, Michigan-based Dark Horse and Roak Brewing late last year. In addition, Benchmark added Great America moonshine-inspired flavored malt beverage (FMB) in late 2024 and Brew Detroit, a contract brewery that also offers its own brands, in February 2025.
With Blake’s, Benchmark can access the company’s sales force and distribution network, which spans 35 states, according to its website.
Benchmark plans to use Blake’s network to grow three brands to start: Dark Horse’s Limonata Pilsner (4% ABV), a lemon-infused “Sicilian-style pilsner that’s really been taking Michigan by storm in the first couple weeks;” the Great America line of FMBs (10% ABV); and Daon Soju (12% ABV), which is sugar-free, available in 21 flavors and “arguably the most aggressive retail-priced soju in the country,” Arabo said.
“We feel that those three lines currently really work well and complement Blake’s, because they’re very fruit-forward as a company,” he added.
Similarities between products in both companies’ portfolios stems from a like-mindedness on the product side, Arabo said.
“One of the things I think Blake’s and us really connected on is we have a really nice chemistry lab in our own minds in terms of what we’re developing,” he said. “We want to create, we want to test out, and they do as well on the cider side. And it just felt like a really nice fit, very natural in a lot of ways.”
Blake’s started on the path toward nationwide expansion in 2022 when it acquired Bend, Oregon-headquartered Avid Cider, which opened the West to the Michigan-based cider maker. The cider platform grew again in 2023 with the acquisition of Texas-based Austin Eastciders.
“This partnership represents the next step in our evolution and allows us to explore and enter new categories,” Blake’s founder and CEO Andrew Blake said in Tuesday’s announcement. “By aligning with Benchmark, we’re able to leverage our shared strengths, networks, and entrepreneurial mindsets to optimize new growth opportunities and bring incredible products to more consumers than ever before.”
Through the partnership, both Blake’s and Benchmark will be adding headcount to national and regional sales teams, Arabo said. No jobs are expected to be cut.
Benchmark’s acquisitive appetite persists, Arabo said.
“We’re still looking for opportunities to team up with people and buy brands and merge and whatever it may be to grow,” he said. “I still think there is a long runway in our industry, and it’s just a matter of putting the pieces together. And we’re sick and tired of the doom and gloom, because we have a great industry with some great people.”
The Blake’s portfolio has recorded accelerating growth in dollar sales and volume, measured in case sales. Year-to-date through May 17, Blake’s has increased both dollar sales and volume 11.7% at off-premise retailers (Total U.S. xAOC + liquor open state + convenience) tracked by NIQ, according to data provided by 3 Tier Beverages.
In the four-week period through May 17, those trends have increased to +12.6% and +12.7%, respectively.
Benchmark’s beer brands produced slightly more than 14,000 barrels in 2024 and expects to approach 20,000 barrels by the end of 2024, Arabo told Brewbound.