On the heels of moving its portfolio of brands to beer wholesalers in Washington state and Colorado last August, Sazerac Company announced last week a major change to its route-to-market in several states.
Sazerac will move its portfolio of brands – including Buffalo Trace bourbon, Pappy Van Winkle bourbon, Corazón tequila, and Fireball Whisky, among others – from Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) to a network that includes several top beer distributors and wine and spirits houses. The transitions are expected to take effect by February 1.
Sazerac’s reshuffling of its distribution network follows a move in August to Columbia Distributing in Washington state and Eagle Rock Distributing in Colorado.
The new network will include:
- Breakthru Beverage in Florida, Arizona, South Carolina, Maryland and Washington, D.C.;
- Johnson Brothers in Indiana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, a control state brokerage in Alabama, Mississippi and West Virginia;
- The Reyes Beer Division in California, Hawaii and certain counties in Texas;
- Kentucky Eagle in Kentucky;
- Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits in Alaska;
- Martignetti Companies in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire;
- In Louisiana, Crescent Crown, Choice Brands/Venture Marketing, and Eagle Beverage;
- In Oklahoma, LDF, Capital Distributing, and Fisher 59;
- In addition to Reyes in Texas, Andrews Distributing, Houston Distributing Company, Faust Distributing, Favorite Brands, Keg 1, L&F Distributors, Reed Beverage, GG Distributing, Giglio Distributing, Fisher 59;
- In the following control states, Sazerac will set up its own brokerage operations: North Carolina, Virginia, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming and Montgomery County, Maryland.
For Andrews Distributing in Texas, the addition of Sazerac’s portfolio marks its first foray into spirits. Andrews will offer more than 230 spirits brands from Sazerac to 26 counties in North and South Texas.
“Our partnership with Sazerac will usher in a historic new era at Andrews,” Andrews president and CEO Mike McGuire said in a press release. “With the number one volume player in the industry, we can extend our shopper marketing expertise and deliver the high level of customer service we are known for into the world of spirits.
“After a thoughtful assessment, we also found that Andrews and Sazerac share a powerful growth mindset,” he continued. “Together, we can use this to connect spirits lovers and the great brands Sazerac offers more often. Opportunities like this, that fit into our focused business strategy, come up once in a generation.”
Within the beer category, Sazerac ranked as the 22nd largest beer category vendor year-to-date through November 27 in off-premise multi-outlet and convenience stores (MULC) tracked by market research firm IRI. The company holds a 0.21 share of beer category dollars in those retailers, with sales of $85.86 million (+159.9%).
In the convenience channel alone, Sazerac is the 15th largest beer category vendor. Fireball Cinnamon, a malt-based version of the popular whisky brand, racked up $76.3 million in off-premise dollar sales in IRI MULC data. The lion’s share of those sales – $70.3 million (+162.4%) – occurred in the convenience channel, with Fireball Cinnamon ranking as the 41st best-selling beer category brand in the channel.