New Belgium Brewing Company began notifying Bell’s Brewery wholesalers on Monday of plans to consolidate the portfolio with the Reyes Beer Division in several markets outside of Michigan.
New Belgium CEO Steve Fechheimer, who leads Lion Little World Beverages’ U.S. platform, which now includes Bell’s following the sale of the Michigan craft brewery late last year, issued the following statement on the terminations:
“Bringing two of America’s most popular breweries together means a lot of overlap when it comes to distribution. Both New Belgium and Bell’s have enjoyed long relationships with outstanding distributors across the country, but unfortunately it’s not logical to continue working with all of them. After reviewing our distributor network and considering a variety of factors, yesterday we started notifying impacted distributors about our plans going forward. This was a very difficult process involving a lot of friends in the business, and we wish nothing but the best to those with whom we’ll be parting ways.
“Michigan is a critical state for Bell’s and New Belgium combined, and we don’t anticipate any change in our distribution networks there in the near future.
“Reyes has been a great partner for New Belgium, and they have played a huge role in our industry leading growth. We realize that Bell’s opted out of Reyes houses and pursued a different strategy, which was logical for its business at the time. We know Tom Day and the entire Reyes team is very excited to sell the Bell’s portfolio.”
Fechheimer declined to elaborate further on the terminations.
For its part, Reyes offered the following statement: “As a family-owned and operated company, we recognize the importance of building close relationships with our partners and we are honored to be chosen as Bell’s distributor of choice in our markets. We look forward to our continued partnership with both Bell’s and New Belgium and working together to strengthen and grow these brands.”
The notifications are just the start of the transitions, which will mark a sea change for Bell’s. Bell’s founder Larry Bell, who retired following the sale of the brewery in late 2021, had a publicly contentious relationship with Reyes. The most recent example being in 2019, when Bell ceased shipments to Virginia following the attempted sale of the brewery’s distribution rights to Reyes subsidiary Premium Distributors of Virginia, which had acquired Loveland Distributing Company. Loveland had sold Bell’s beer since 2015.
In 2019, Bell sent letters to Bell’s distributor partners informing them the brewery would refuse to accept the sale of its portfolio to successor wholesalers that were wholly owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, Molson Coors or belonged to the Reyes Beer Division. Bell added similar language to new distribution contracts following the issuing of those letters.
Those past issues however no longer are a roadblock to getting the Bell’s portfolio into Reyes houses, the largest beer distributor in the U.S. with distributorships in California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
In December, distribution of the Bell’s Brewery portfolio in Ohio shifted from Premium Beverage Supply, which sold Bell’s offerings statewide, to a network of four wholesalers: Superior Beverage Group in the greater Columbus and Cleveland areas; Bonbright Distributing in the Dayton area; Stagnaro Distributing in the Cincinnati area; and Heidelberg Distributing in the northwestern part of the state. Notably, those wholesalers didn’t align with New Belgium’s in the state.