Another partnership with Republic National Distributing Co. (RNDC) has come to an end.
This week, news broke that Anheuser-Busch InBev has terminated its partnership with RNDC in California and “several other markets,” effective immediately. Rumored for weeks to be the case, the news was officially confirmed in an email sent to the RNDC California team from RNDC West Region president Bryan Boeck, which was later posted to the r/RNDC subreddit. In the email, Boeck noted that AB-InBev is “committed to ensuring a smooth transition.”
According to a Thursday morning report from Beer Business Daily (BBD), AB-InBev has transitioned all spirits brand rights from RNDC to Southern Glazer’s in California, Hawaii, and “some” control states. Those control states currently include Alabama, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, and Wyoming.
The move specifically relates to AB-InBev’s spirits-based brand distribution rights, and will not impact the distribution of any of the conglomerate’s beer or malt-based hard seltzer brands. Nevertheless, it’s another big loss for RNDC, as AB-InBev’s Cutwater serves as the country’s second-largest spirits-based canned cocktail brand family — with California, the brand’s home market, being the most important. As BBD reports, AB-InBev revealed last year that in Cutwater’s top 10 markets, the brand’s share ranges from 50 to 30 percent, with the Golden State leading.
“We are confident that the decision to transition our spirits-based brand distribution rights to Southern Glazer’s in California, Hawaii, and some control states will strengthen our spirits-based brands in key markets and help accelerate our overall commercial momentum,” an anonymous AB-InBev spokesperson told BBD.
The news is the latest in a series of announcements regarding major producers shifting their distribution away from RNDC to work with other distribution companies — namely the Reyes Beverage Group. In January 2023, RNDC’s long-term partner Sazerac announced that it would be pivoting distribution away from RNDC and towards the Chicago-based group, kickstarting the trend currently playing out.
In January of this year, Tito’s Vodka announced that it would be moving distribution from RNDC to the Reyes Group as well, and on February 24, Brown-Forman stated that it would be doing the same. Two days later, RNDC announced that CEO Nick Mehall would be leaving the company, with Bob Hendrickson, COO and executive vice president, stepping in as interim CEO. But the departures didn’t end there.
On April 4, Gallo revealed that it would be moving distribution of High Noon Sun Sips in California from RNDC to the Reyes Beverage Group effective July 1. Almost three times the size of Cutwater — High Noon’s closest competitor — the vodka- and tequila-based seltzer brand is overall top spirits brand by volume in the U.S.
At the time of the announcement, a representative from Gallo noted that the pivot was in response to market assessment.
“Gallo is evolving its approach with High Noon in California to ensure continued success, competitiveness, and increased market coverage for the brand,” the representative told Brewbound. “[…] We believe this new route-to-market with Reyes Beverage Group in California will further support the growth potential and ongoing success of the brand. As a result of this change, the RNDC California sales team will be able to dedicate its focus on Gallo’s diverse and robust wine and spirits portfolio.”
AB-InBev’s recent distribution decision marks RNDC’s fourth major account loss in 2025. It remains to be seen how the distribution company will respond.
VP Pro Take
“Man, this is getting hard to watch. With lots of RNDC blood already chumming the water thanks to all the major departures over the past couple years (and especially the past few months), I’d been hearing chatter on Cutwater’s potential jump for a while.
As I reported late last month, the fact that ABI can’t move its canned cocktail brand to its wholly owned distributorships in Southern California wouldn’t have precluded the firm from tapping independent ‘red network’ houses to take over the volume. For somebody like Peter Heimark, the third-generation ABI distributor outta Indio who in 2023 put together a fairly innovative coalition of in-state indie wholesalers called California Beverage Solutions in order to provide a competitive middle-tier answer for when this specific question arose at the mothership, it’s a raw deal that Cutwater would wind up in Southern Glazer’s warehouses instead.
And, sure, SGWS offers the brand a multi-state footprint that even Reyes Beverage Group can’t match (for now). But some of my sources are scratching their heads anyway. After all, breadth of distribution is typically less important than depth of distribution, and beer wholesalers tend to be much more experienced at servicing convenience stores than their counterparts in wine/liquor. Then again, with most of the moves coming in control states where liquor-based canned cocktails are often restricted to placements more akin to traditional liquor, that may have been a tradeoff ABI was willing to make in exchange for a more favorable scaled deal with a partner willing to pay up whatever it took to make RNDC whole on its contract rights.
Speaking of which — any guesses on that sum-total? I’m hearing low-to-mid eight figures for Cali alone… but if you know more, I’d love to hear from you. Get in touch: [email protected].” —Dave Infante, VinePair columnist and contributing editor
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