Four major-brand wholesalers in the Pacific Northwest, Marine View Beverage, Sound Beverage, Odom and C. Stein Beverage have announced their partnership in a new company Great Artisan Beverage Co. that will distribute craft and specialty brands throughout the Pacific Northwest region. Great Artisan will be managed and run independently and each of the partners will… Read More…

Reyes Beverage Group has reached an agreement to purchase Windy City Distribution, the distributor of craft beers in Chicago that was founded by brothers Jim and Jason Ebel in 1999. Windy City operates in eight northern Illinois counties with about 40 craft breweries. Reyes’ Chicago Beverage Systems and Windy City will not integrate their operations…. Read More…

High Country Beverage based in Northern Colorado announced the acquisition of Colorado Beverage Distributing, Inc. The purchase will result in two new branch operations along the Western Slope of Colorado, located in Grand Junction and Montrose, Colorado. With the acquisition of Colorado Beverage Distributing, Inc., High Country Beverage’s market will grow to include Delta, Gunnison,… Read More…

The Brewers Association and the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) announce Saturday that Brown Distributing Company, based in West Palm Beach, Fla. has been named the 2012 Craft Beer Distributor of the Year. The Craft Beer Distributor of the Year Award, now in its sixth year, recognizes the beer distributor who does the most to… Read More…

Artisanal Imports of Austin, TX announced today the acquisition of the USA brand importing rights held by SBS Imports of Seattle, WA. Artisanal will now be the exclusive U.S. importer of Aspall Cyders from Suffolk, England; Batemans Ales from Lincolshire, England; Bellegems Bruin from the Bockor Brewery in Bellegem, Belgium; and the De Proef Brewmaster’s… Read More…

The National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) Annual Convention will take place in San Diego October 14 – 17, 2012. The conference will cover issues effecting beer distributors and the industry, and demo new technologies and sample new products during the Product Demonstration Showcase. Twenty-one education seminars taught by the industry’s leading experts round out the… Read More…

Darden Restaurants Inc., owners of Red Lobster and Olive Garden, announced that they will acquire the Yard House restaurant chain for $585 million in cash. Yard House, which is based in Irvine, Calif., is owned by the private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners and other investors. The deal is expected to close by November. The… Read More…

The St. Louis-based spirits and beer distributor Major Brands has reached a deal with Anheuser-Busch to buy Eagle Brands, A-B’s directly owned distributorship in Miami. Florida law required that AB relinquish its majority ownership in its Miami branch and AB has been looking for a suitable buyer. The agreement gives the wholesaler a new territory,… Read More…

Central Ohio’s oldest beer distributorship, Hill Distributing Co. may soon sell. Cincinnati-based Heidelberg Distributing Co. announced yesterday that it had an agreement in place to buy the Columbus distributor founded by Charlie Hill in May 1933, a month after the end of Prohibition. Hill is an “all-other” house selling some heritage domestic brands, a few… Read More…

Southern Wine & Spirits announced that they will buy the balance of Odom Corp out of the two companies’ distribution joint-venture. The deal ends three years of co-operation between the two firms in the states of Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Wyoming and Utah. SWS is about to open a 350,000-square-foot distribution center in the… Read More…