Miami, Florida-based Southern Wine & Spirits has agreed to purchase Bloomington-based Quality Wine and Spirits—a deal that has been described as one of the biggest in Minnesota’s liquor wholesaling business in many years.
Miami, Florida-based liquor distributing giant Southern Wine & Spirits on Friday agreed to purchase Bloomington-based Quality Wine and Spirits, according to a Star Tribune report.
The Minneapolis newspaper described the deal as one of the biggest in Minnesota’s liquor wholesaling business in many years. Terms of the deal, however, were not disclosed.
Southern, which is a private company, reportedly has around $9 billion in annual sales. Quality’s CEO Jack Goldenberg told the Star Tribune that his Bloomington company is the third-largest wine and spirits distributor that operates in Minnesota after Johnson Brothers of St. Paul and Chicago-based Wirtz Beverage.
Southern reportedly entered the Minnesota market in 2010 through a joint venture with Minneapolis-based J.J. Taylor Companies. While that venture is the state’s fourth-largest distributor, the Quality deal will give Southern a considerably bigger presence in the state, according to the Star Tribune.
Goldenberg told the newspaper that it’s easier these days for spirits companies to do business with big wholesalers like Southern.
“It has become very clear that the single-state wholesaler [like Quality] is of less interest to his suppliers than companies that operate in multiple states,” he added.
Quality reportedly dates back to the early post-Prohibition era and was started by Goldenberg’s grandfather, Jacob E. Goldenberg. The Goldenberg family business dates back to 1905 when it was a tobacco and candy distributor in Chisholm, the Star Tribune reported.
—Nataleeya Boss
(nboss@tcbmag.com)