The nation’s largest beer distributor, Reyes Beer Division, plans to acquire Indianapolis-based Monarch Beverage Co., Indiana’s largest beer distributor.
Rosemont-based Reyes Beer said the transaction is scheduled to close Dec. 11. Terms weren’t disclosed.
Reyes Beer Division is also one of the largest private companies in the country and, throughout this year, has grown significantly through acquisition.
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to add a new state to our footprint,” said Tom Day, the company’s chief executive officer.
Earlier this year, Reyes said it would merge operations this month of its Chicago wholesalers Chicago Beverage Systems, which handled big names including Molson Coors and Constellation brands as well as Chicago’s Revolution Brewing and Half Acre, and Windy City Distributing, which was focused on craft beers including Lagunitas and Three Floyds. Parent company Reyes Holdings is also a major Coca Cola distributor.
Monarch Beverage — family-owned since it was founded in 1947 by Edwin T. French Sr. — grew to be Indiana’s largest beer distributor under three generations of French family ownership.
In 2009, the company, which has about 600 employees, moved to a 500,000-square-foot distribution center in Lawrence, a municipality on Indianapolis’ northeast side. It delivers an average of 50,000 cases of product a day to retail customers across Indiana.
For years, Monarch Beverage had tried and failed — in the courts, in the state legislature and through the administrative process — to overturn Indiana’s so-called prohibited-interest law, which would have allowed it to enter the liquor-wholesaling business. The law bans beer wholesalers from acquiring an interest in a liquor-wholesaling permit and liquor wholesalers from acquiring a beer-wholesaling permit.
