VinePair reported on Tuesday that Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) is selling off a section of its operations in the states of Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington D.C. to Reyes Beverage Group.
Reyes Beverage Group is the country’s largest beer distributor and represents major brands like Modelo, Coors Light, Heineken, Guinness, and New Belgium in its portfolio. This latest move comes a few months after the distributor’s very public exit from the state of California that made headlines in June.
“We’ve made the difficult business decision to withdraw from California, which affects many of the roles in the state,” RNDC CEO Bob Hendrickson said in a statement when RNDC announced it was leaving the golden state. “We are complying with all regulatory obligations and are committed to handling every transition thoughtfully and smoothly and ensuring everyone is treated fairly and respectfully.”
Per the distributor’s latest move, VinePair reported that an anonymous source shared with the outlet that Reyes made the decision to run RNDC’s businesses “separately from their current operations.”
A Series of Setbacks
It’s been a challenging couple of years for RNDC.
The distributor suffered major losses, like in 2023 when Sazerac parted ways. The brand’s departure resulted in litigation, and Sazerac filed a lawsuit against RNDC, alleging that RNDC’s performance kept deteriorating despite the company’s best efforts to remedy the situation.
Sazerac claimed that RNDC attempted to sully the brand’s good name in the marketplace, after its departure and that RNDC failed to pay $38.6 million for unpaid invoices. Sazerac also claimed that RNDC did such a poor job selling the brand, that it had to create a field marketing team it paid for out of pocket, according to Bourbon Real Talk.
Shortly after that, RNDC lost Tito’s Vodka in California, Gallo’s High Noon and Brown-Forman’s portfolio in the state. Brown-Forman is another major bourbon brand that represents whiskeys like Woodford Reserve, Old Forester and Jack Daniel’s. Shortly after, the brand’s interim CEO, Bob Hendrickson, tragically passed away.
On Jan 8 of this year, Proximo announced its departure from RNDC, signaling that the distributor’s troubles are far from over.
What the future holds for the beleaguered beverage business remains unclear. We’ve reached out to the distribution company for comment.
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