Patco Brands, the manufacturer of one of the leading wine-based ready-to-drink products and other private label brands, has made a strategic investment in Farfield, California-based Frank-Lin Distillers Products, the companies announced Monday.
The deal, which was closed and funded as of December 4, will allow Patco Brands to further vertically integrate as a full-service beverage company, according to Russell Stanley, COO at Patco Brands.
Patco Brands, a family-owned company that was founded in 2012 with a small tequila business, has grown into one of the largest producers of agave wine RTDs through its Rancho La Gloria brand. On the heels of Rancho La Gloria’s success, Patco (which also does business as MPL Brands) began to make private label products for retailers while growing a portfolio of its own brands such as Doughball Whiskey, Kyla Hard Kombucha and Big Sipz.
Rancho La Gloria is the third highest selling wine-based cocktail, but was down -5.9% in sales the last 52 weeks in NIQ off-premise channels. Big Sipz, which launched in January 2023 and is in a legal battle with competitor BuzzBallz, is up +466.6% over the same period.
Many of Patco Brands products are already produced at Frank-Lin facilities, and the new partnership will allow Patco to have increased bottling, blending and filling capabilities with all spirit categories, as well as RTD projects.
Owned by the Maestri family, Frank-Lin opened in 1966, and offers custom bottling, importing, exporting and wholesaling. According to Patco, Frank-Lin is the largest rectifier— a company that buys spirits or wine in bulk and cuts, blends and packages it — on the West Coast.
“This collaboration will enable us to reach a broader audience and enhance our brand’s reputation even further,” said Vincent Maestri Jr., executive vice president of Frank-Lin, in a statement.
Patco Brands will move its West Coast production office into the Frank-Lin facility, while Patco Brands national sales and marketing teams will represent some of Frank-Lin’s existing distributed brands as the teams collaborate on new brands and private label products. Frank-Lin will continue to produce and warehouse Patco’s current portfolio of projects along with future projects.
Historically, Patco Brands has made a variety of capital investments into partners’ facilities and equipment, but hasn’t partnered in this capacity with other distilleries in the U.S., according to Stanley.
“Frank-Lin is a third generation family business that we have a long-standing and successful relationship with,” said Stanley. “Their state-of-the-art facilities, operations and blending and bottling capabilities are world class and integrating closer into their operations is something that will increase our efficiencies across the board.”
The partnership will allow Patco and Frank-Lin to produce “well in excess of 20 million cases” (double Patco’s current output) annually at the Frank-Lin Fairfield location, according to Stanley, allowing the company to “grow and scale our national brands while diving deeper into private label brands for our key retailers.”
Patco products are sold in major retailers such as Costco, Target, Whole Foods, and Kirkland.