J. J. Taylor Companies, Inc. was founded in 1958 by John J. “Joe” Taylor, Jr. Through the years the Company has grown both internally and through acquisitions under the leadership of Joe’s son John. J. Taylor, III.

In 1978 the Company built a new warehouse facility in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts. In 1980, with a 45 share of the business, sales were approaching 5 million cases. However, sales declined steadily from that point on and with a very limited portfolio it was difficult to compete in this highly fragmented and competitive market. This division was sold in 2002.

In 1985, the Company acquired East Side Beverage in Minnesota. ESB began in the beer distribution business in 1933 in Northeast Minneapolis and was founded by two brothers. In the early years the brothers took to the streets selling Grain Belt and other local brands of beer from a model “A” truck. With its experience and systems the Company was able to more than double sales and has since become the largest beer distributor in the state of Minnesota with 150 employees.

The Company built a multi-market radio business beginning in 1983. The Company divested these interests in 1994 to concentrate on the development of the malt beverage distribution business.

The Company acquired Gato Distributors in November 1994, which was the Miller distributor for Dade and Monroe counties including the area from Miami to Key West. Even though J. J. Taylor became the “First Choice” beer distributor for many customers and its employees and became a respected competitor in the very complex Miami market, it was never able to garner the market share needed to become consistently profitable because of its limited import portfolio. This business as sold in 2001.

In July of 1997, the Company established itself in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area by acquiring Anthony Distributors. In June of 2001, the Company acquired distributorships serving Sarasota, Ft. Myers and Naples, Florida. Following these acquisitions, the operations in Florida were combined into one business division named J. J. Taylor Distributing Florida, Inc. In Florida, the Company operates out of two new state of the art warehouses of 340,000 square feet in Tampa and 70,000 square feet in Ft. Myers. In late 2004, the Company installed an automated case picking system that substantially increased output and efficiency.

The Company’s Corporate Headquarters and training center located in Jupiter, Florida provides leadership, oversight and administrative staff support services.

The Company currently operates in two states, employs 700 people and serves over 10,800 retail accounts. In 2004 total revenue was $329 million dollars and represented sales of 23.3 million cases of beer.