Reyes Beverage Group is a titan among U.S. beverage alcohol distributors as the country’s leading beer distributor, delivering around 320 million cases annually to over 115,000 retail accounts nationwide. Nearly all the Reyes business traditionally has been in beer—until 2023, when the company began ramping up its activity on the wine and spirits side. It all started with a 2023 deal to handle the Sazerac’s business in California and parts of Texas, and what has since followed is a series of moves into wine and spirits distribution, as Reyes added such suppliers as Gallo, Tito’s, Brown-Forman, and other major players. But its biggest move of all came this year, with an agreement to acquire the businesses of Republic National Distributing Co. (RNDC) in a deal that was finalized this past spring. RNDC had been the nation’s No.-2 spirits and wine distributor behind Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits, covering some 11 states including Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
The RNDC acquisition accounted for nearly $7 billion in new business for Reyes this calendar year, and made it the nation’s third-largest spirits and wine distributor behind Breakthru and Southern. The entire move has been a thunder-clap over the industry, rearranging the wine and spirits second tier in a way that was virtually unprecedented for its speed.
Leading the company’s operations through all this massive change has been Tom Day, CEO of Reyes Beverage Group since 2019. Day came to Reyes from Diageo, where he had served as global chief sales officer and chairman of the company’s US Beer Division, where he placed particular focus on digitally enabled sales. Building off the tools learned from his impressive beer pedigree, Day has been driving the wine and spirits side, hitting the ground running and laying the groundwork for future growth. And while spirits might seem to be the focus in this new diversification, Day has also emphasized that wine will be a major part of the picture. “We want to make it clear that we’re committed to wine, and the wine industry,” Day said in an interview earlier this year with Market Watch sister publication Shanken News Daily, noting that the RNDC deal won Reyes one of the largest wine distribution businesses in the country.
While beer sales at Reyes account for around 80% of the total picture for Reyes, spirits and wine have obviously grown by leaps and bounds over the past three years, with future growth still very likely. Reyes has been ramping up on its newly acquired wine and spirits activities, according to Day, adding over 1,000 commercial roles on that side of the business and investing in workshops, cocktail labs, and sales training programs to hone its expertise. Particular attention is being paid to the national accounts side and growth management, but there are also major investments in warehousing and equipment to help improve storage and delivery of inventory. As Reyes Beverage celebrates the 50th year of its founding this year, there’s been little time for celebrating as the new business becomes integrated into the company. But it’s been quite a year, with the promise of more growth to come, and CEO Tom Day will be at the center of it.
David Fleming
