Supplier Shuffle: Leading Wholesalers Strike A Host Of New Deals

New supplier agreements—and in some cases transitions—have continued apace over the past year for the U.S. market’s leading wholesale players. Among them, Southern Glazer’s inked national deals with Ste. Michelle Wine Estates and Hotaling and Co., and Don Sebastiani & Sons recently aligned with the top-ranked wholesaler across 25 markets. Breakthru Beverage Group scored a coup in Illinois, meanwhile, gaining the Moët Hennessy portfolio, while William Grant & Sons extended with Empire Merchants in New York for another half-decade, and also extended its alignment with Republic National Distributing Co. (RNDC) across 25 U.S. markets.

RNDC also gained the business of Delicato Family Wines across 12 new states, effective in January, taking the two companies’ total alliance to 25 markets. Elsewhere, Delicato has also added new markets with Breakthru and Johnson Brothers recently. RNDC also formed new partnerships with Accolade Wines, Raventos Codorniu, and Zonin1821, among others.

And the second-ranked wholesaler nationwide made another key pickup early this year as it added Gallo’s chain retail business in California. RNDC had already been handling Gallo’s general market retail business in the Golden State since 2021. “RNDC has been a great distributor for Gallo brands nationally, and we look forward to expanding our relationship with them as we transition our chain business in California,” said Ted Seburn, vice president of sales for E.&J. Gallo Winery.

Also early this year, Sazerac made waves as it announced a broad shakeup of its distributor alignment, departing the RNDC portfolio in more than two dozen states, with Breakthru, Johnson Brothers, Martignetti, Southern Glazer’s, beer distribution giant Reyes, and others picking up the business in areas around the U.S. effective February 1. Breakthru gained the Sazerac portfolio in Florida, Arizona, South Carolina, Maryland, and Washington D.C., while Johnson Brothers took it on in Indiana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska, plus control state brokerage in Alabama, Mississippi, and West Virginia.

Southern Glazer’s assumed the Sazerac business in Alaska; Martignetti was tapped in Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire; and Sazerac aligned with Reyes in California, Hawaii, and counties in Texas—including two of the top four cities in the Lone Star State. Meanwhile, Sazerac set up its own control state brokerage operations in North Carolina, Virginia, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, and Montgomery County, Maryland.

For Reyes, the nation’s largest beer distributor—delivering approximately 300 million cases annually to almost 100,000 retail accounts across the nation—gaining the Sazerac range in California and parts of Texas is a major step as it looks to diversify its portfolio beyond beer. In a statement, the company noted, “Reyes Beer Division and Sazerac have similar growth patterns and strategies, and are two long-standing family-owned businesses, a model we believe will set us both up for success. This is a natural next step for us as we have made significant investments to transform our business into a total bev-alc distributor.” Led by Fireball at more than 7 million cases, Sazerac is the second-largest spirits supplier in the U.S. by volume after Diageo, according to Impact Databank.

Tagged : Accolade, Breakthru, Delicato, E.&J. Gallo, Empire Merchants, Hotaling, Moet Hennessy, RNDC, Sazerac, Southern Glazer's, Ste. Michelle, William Grant & Sons

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