The alignment of New Belgium and Bell’s Brewery’s distribution networks following the comapnies’ late 2021 merger is picking up steam as the rights to about 500,000 case equivalents of the Comstock, Michigan-headquartered brewery’s beer are about to change hands.
New Belgium acquired Bell’s distribution rights in six markets from Sheehan Family Companies last week. Those include Wisconsin, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, New Jersey and parts of New York. Beer Marketer’s Insights (BMI) first reported the news on Friday, and a New Belgium spokesperson confirmed the information to Brewbound.
Fair market value payouts to some distributors (but not all) selling the Bell’s rights has been set at six times gross profits, according to BMI.
Bell’s distribution rights are slated to be sold to the Reyes Beer Division in Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia, this week, adding about 100,000 cases to Reyes’ business.
In Wisconsin, where the rights to about 130,000 cases moved, Sheehan’s Beechwood Sales & Service sold the rights to both Bell’s and New Belgium to Beer Capitol, a subsidiary of Frank Beverage Group, according to updated reporting from BMI. LaCrosse Beverages, another Frank subsidiary, acquired Bell’s rights from General Beer and was appointed as New Belgium’s distributor in its territory.
In New York, Manhattan Beer will acquire Bell’s from Sheehan-owned Union Beer Distributors, which covers New York City and Long Island.
The goal of the sales has been to shift Bell’s to New Belgium’s existing network, and in several markets, Sheehan houses that sell both brands will continue to do so. Sheehan will continue to sell New Belgium and Bell’s in Central, Western and Northeastern New York through T.J. Sheehan Distributing and Tri-Valley Beverage, according to BMI. In Massachusetts, Sheehan will continue to sell both New Belgium and Bell’s through L. Knife & Son, Seaboard Products and Craft Massachusetts.
In March, New Belgium CEO Steve Fechheimer announced plans to consolidate the distribution of New Belgium and Bell’s with the Reyes Beer Division outside of Michigan.
Last month, Reyes subsidiary Monarch Distributing acquired about 175,000 cases from Bell’s Indiana distribution network, which consisted of 15 independent Anheuser-Busch distributors. Bell’s founder Larry Bell forced the sale of rights to those 15 red houses after Reyes acquired Monarch in late 2020.
Editor’s note: this story was updated at 5:45 p.m. on Monday, May 9 to reflect corrected information from Beer Marketer’s Insights about Wisconsin sales.