The country’s third largest craft brewery, New Belgium Brewing, is once again expanding its distribution footprint. On its quest to be distributed in all 50 states before 2018, New Belgium today announced it has signed wholesale agreements with six distributors in the Magnolia State:
- Capital City Beverage (Miller/Coors)
- Mitchell Distributing (ABI)
- F.E.B. Distributing (Miller/Coors)
- A&B Distributing (ABI)
- Stokes Distributing (Miller/Coors)
- Magnolia Beverage (Miller/Coors)
The Fort Collins-based brewery will officially debut in Mississippi, its 37th state of distribution, on March 3.
“We’re incredibly excited to be rolling into Mississippi,” New Belgium Regional Director, Rusty Hancock said in a press release. “With the recent addition of Alabama, we are now available throughout the entire southeastern U.S. and that’s something we’ve been working toward for awhile now.”
As with its launches in Ohio, Alaska, Florida and Delaware last year, New Belgium will take a phased rollout approach. The company’s core offerings like Fat Tire, Ranger IPA, Shift, Tripel and 1554 as well as Summer Helles, Snapshot Wheat and various Lips of Faith series beers will immediately be available.
Meanwhile, construction at New Belgium’s second brewery in North Carolina is progressing and the company still hopes to be brewing at that location in 2015. In advance of the brewery opening, the company has secured a site (about 8 miles from the new brewery) for its east coast distribution center.
“At full build out, the distribution center operations will support about 30 of the total 140 expected jobs,” the company wrote on its blog this week.