Reyes Beverage Group Expands Into Wine and Spirits

Republic National Distributing Company has completed the sale of its assets in 11 U.S. states to Reyes Beverage Group, a move that gives one of the country’s largest beer distributors a much bigger role in wine and spirits at a time when the wholesale alcohol business is being reshaped by consolidation and retreat.

Reyes has taken over RNDC’s operations in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Washington, D.C., according to the companies. The transaction in Hawaii is still awaiting regulatory approval.

Marc Sachs, RNDC’s president and chief executive, said in a statement that the deal marked “an important milestone” and thanked employees and supplier partners for helping complete the transfer. He said the company’s focus had been on creating opportunities for workers and suppliers while managing an orderly transition across the affected markets.

The sale is part of a broader pullback by RNDC, once the second-largest alcohol distributor in the United States. Over the past year, the company has steadily reduced its footprint after years of pressure from changing market conditions, rising costs and shifting state-by-state distribution rules. RNDC first said in January that it was in talks to sell operations in seven markets to Reyes, shortly after its exit from California the previous summer. By March, the deal had expanded to include five more states and no longer included Illinois, which had been part of earlier discussions.

In April, RNDC also agreed to sell its operations in all 17 control states to Martignetti Companies, though that transaction is still pending regulatory approval. Last month, RNDC said it would lay off more than 400 workers in the Pacific Northwest as it moved toward selling distribution rights in Oregon and Washington to Columbia Distributing.

For Reyes Beverage Group, the latest deal extends a business that already makes it the largest beer distributor in the U.S. into a wider wine and spirits network across major markets including Texas and Florida. The expansion could affect how brands are moved through stores, bars and restaurants in those states as distributors continue to consolidate their reach and suppliers adjust to fewer but larger partners.