Distribution

Beer distributors’ top priority in lobbying visits with congressional members during the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) legislative conference was to push for permanence for lowered tax rates put in place by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA).

Republic National Distributing Company’s (RNDC) portfolio in California has shrunk again, as Gallo moves its popular High Noon Sun Sips ready-to-drink (RTD) canned cocktail line to the Reyes Beverage Group.

Off-premise trends across beverage-alcohol suggest an even bleaker year ahead for the industry than “what we already limped through in 2024,” according to the latest monthly update from Bump Williams Consulting (BWC) and founder Bump Williams.

Hand Family Companies made a splash Monday with a deal to enter the Southern California market through the acquisitions of Stone Distributing and Classic Beverage, creating a new subsidiary, Sunset Distributing. Speaking to Brewbound, HFC president and CEO JR Hand said he expects Sunset to “be the dominant wholesaler in the craft space in Southern California.”

Hand Family Companies (HFC) has made a blockbuster deal to add Stone Distributing Company and Classic Beverage in Southern California to its newly formed Sunset Distributing subsidiary, the multistate independent Anheuser-Busch distributor announced today.

2025’s drinking occasions just can’t hold a candle to 2024, it seems. In the lead up to St. Patrick’s Day (week ending March 16), off-premise bev-alc sales recorded a -3.9% decline year-over-year (YoY), market research firm Circana reported in its newest batch of weekly data. Holiday shopping delivered a +5% increase week-over-week (WoW).

When Adam Spiegel founded Sonoma Distilling Company in 2010, it was the 15th distillery to open in California. Now the Golden State boasts more than 300 distilleries, more than any other state, and Spiegel is embarking on a new chapter aiming to help revitalize what he calls a “broken three-tier system.”

The CEO of Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) is out this morning following the distributor’s loss of two major suppliers in the country’s largest spirits market.

Brown-Forman is ditching Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) for evolving total-beverage distributor Reyes Beverage Group in California.

Maryland lawmakers are considering a bill that would expand beer and wine sales licenses to the state’s grocery, convenience, mass retail and warehouse stores. However, House Bill 1379 “faced tough questioning in committee and faces a tough road to passage in the House,” Maryland Matters reported, citing a nearly three-hour debate over it last week.

Georgia craft brewers may soon have more options to take their products to market, as the state Senate is considering a bill that would legalize self-distribution. The Craft Beer and Local Economy Revitalization Act (S.B. 122) would permit small breweries to sell up to 3,000 barrels annually “to retailers licensed in this state that are located within a 100-mile radius of the small brewer’s licensed premises,” the bill reads.

The first two months of the year have seen a flurry of transactions for brands like Spindrift, RISE Brewing Co. and Aura Bora, but the year’s first big M&A blockbuster arrived late yesterday. As we take in our first impressions of the deal, here are the threads we’re following.

Beer category dollar sales were roughly flat (-0.3%) to start the year at off-premise retailers tracked by market research firm Circana. Sales reached $2.854 billion at multi-outlet grocery, mass retail and convenience stores (MULO+C) in the first four weeks of 2025, through January 26.

The Yuengling Company launched draft in Illinois on January 27, the eighth expansion state for the Pennsylvania brewery’s joint venture with Molson Coors.