The Reyes Beverage Group is making another wholesaler purchase in California.
Reyes’ Crest Beverage subsidiary announced Monday an agreement to acquire all of the assets of Imperial, California-based Claypool Distributing.
Financial terms of the transaction were undisclosed.
As part of the deal, Reyes, the nation’s largest beer wholesaler, will add about 650,000 cases of product and about 400 new customer accounts to Crest’s business. Claypool services the southeastern part of California, including portions of San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, as well as throughout Imperial County.
San Diego County-based Crest services the United States’ largest craft beer market, with annual sales of 14 million cases to 4,600 customers.
Claypool’s portfolio includes offerings from Molson Coors, Mark Anthony Brands (White Claw, Mike’s Hard Lemonade), Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams, Truly Hard Seltzer, Twisted Tea, Angry Orchard), Diageo, Heineken USA, Lagunitas, Deschutes, Founders, AleSmith, Pabst, Sapporo, Tsingtao, Phusion Projects (Four Loko), Belching Beaver, and the Alkaline Water Co., according to its website.
“We’ve seen a tremendous amount of recent growth and success in our California footprint and this is another great opportunity to build upon that with Claypool Distributing Company,” Reyes Beer Division West president Tom Reyes said in a press release.
Crest Beverage president and co-owner Steven Sourapas added that the company is “looking forward to welcoming new employees and expanding our territory into Imperial and San Bernardino counties.”
Reyes has been among the most active buyers in the middle tier. The acquisition of Claypool will mark Reyes’ eighth deal in California since June 2018.
The deal for Claypool, however, is small in comparison to other deals struck over the last year. In early December, Reyes’ Harbor Distributing subsidiary closed its acquisition of W.A. Thompson in Bakersfield, California, adding 7.1 million cases, 2,500 new accounts and about 200 new employees to its business.
In July, Harbor struck a deal to acquire DBI Beverage Inc.’s assets, adding 28 million cases of beer and non-alcoholic beverages to its portfolio as well as 14,000 new customer accounts in northern California.
In February, the company’s acquisition of Central Coast Distributing added 2.6 million cases of product and 1,000 accounts across San Luis Obispo County and Northern Santa Barbara to Reyes’ beer business.
Reyes’ total volume in California is inching closer to 100 million cases, and the state accounts for about half of the company’s total volume. Nationwide, Reyes sells more than 200 million case equivalents and serves more than 85,000 retail accounts.
Reyes’ appetite for acquisitions hasn’t been limited to California. In November, Reyes subsidiary Premium Distributors of Virginia closed on the acquisition of Winchester, Virginia-based Dixie Beverage Company, adding 280,000 cases to Premium’s 12 million-case business.