Golden Brands Beverage Distributors, a San Francisco Coors/Miller distributor has been sold to DBI Beverage Distributors of Nashville, Tennessee. Golden Brands, which carries a far greater portfolio of craft brands than most Coors/Miller houses, is a well known distributor of specialty beer brands being one of only two beer distributors with operations in the City. The other is an Anheuser-Busch distributor, who handles just a few select specialty brands.
DBI Beverage is owned by David Ingram, Chairman and President of Ingram Entertainment Inc., a national distributor of home entertainment products including DVDs, prerecorded videocassettes, and video games. Ingram Entertainment Holdings Inc. had total revenues of $1.03 billion in 2003. David Ingram has close ties with Coors Brewing Company and the Coors family. Ingram formed DBI Beverage in 2002 specifically to acquire Crown Beverage, the Coors distributor in Memphis, Tennessee, home to one of three national Coors operations. It is speculated that DBI may be on the hunt for further Coors house acquisitions. Ingram says future revenues at the San Francisco operation will depend on consolidation opportunities in the Bay area market. “If we do a good job of managing this one, we’ll have opportunities to look at other deals,” he says.
Golden Brands’ managers and 150 employees will be retained, and the new owner will continue using the Golden Brands name in the San Francisco market, DBI said last week. Terms of the asset purchase were not disclosed. Golden Brands has annual revenue of about $70 million, said a spokesman for the new owner. The company is headed by Robert Stahl, President and General manager. Golden Brands was formed in 1933 by the Molakides family and was owned by Ted Molakides along with his brothers. – Tom McCormick