Diageo, the importer of Guinness and Harp, has struck an agreement to move its brands from Watsonville-based Couch Distributing and South San Francisco-based Matagrano, Inc. to the Reyes Beer Division in California.
“As a business we continually review and improve our organization and our route to market, in service of accelerating performance,” a Diageo spokesperson told Brewbound. “Last week we announced we will be further consolidating our distributor alignment in the state of California, and moving away from Matagrano and Couch. We want to thank Matagrano and Couch for their partnership over the years.”
In the Bay Area, Reyes subsidiary Golden Brands sells 38 million cases annually to 16,200 retail accounts. Reyes began building Golden Brands in July 2019 when it acquired DBI Beverage Inc. and has added to its Northern California territory with several transactions:
- Saccani Distributing Company, in Sacramento (March 2020);
- Bay Area Beverage Company in Richmond (April 2020);
- And Elyxir Distributing in Watsonville (June 2020).
Shortly before Diageo announced it was leaving Couch’s portfolio, Reyes added the Constellation Brands portfolio, including Mexican imports Corona, Modelo and Pacifico, from Couch.
Couch’s brands include products from Anheuser-Busch InBev, Heineken and craft offerings from Firestone Walker, Ballast Point, Anchor, Bear Republic, Golden State Cider, Gordon Biersch and Ninkasi. Couch, founded in 1973, serves Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties.
Like Couch, Matagrano is an A-B house with additional offerings from California-based craft breweries, such as Firestone Walker, 21st Amendment, Lagunitas, Drake’s and Golden State Cider. Its territory includes San Francisco, San Mateo and northern Santa Clara counties.
Earlier this summer, Diageo moved its brands to the Reyes network in central southern California, terminating relationships with Classic Beverage, Pacific Beverage and Bottomley Distributing, moves that were first reported by Beer Marketer’s Insights, which estimated the move brought another 400,000 case equivalents to Reyes.