Minneapolis-St. Paul | Contact Info

J.J. TAYLOR DISTRIBUTING COMPANY OF MINNESOTA, INC.

East Side Beverage Company, predecessor to J. J. Taylor Distributing Company of Minnesota, Inc. began distributing beer in 1933 shortly after the 18th Amendment was repealed. The Company took its name from its location - on the east side of northeast Minneapolis. Two brothers, Bill Farhet and Phil Resha, sold Grain Belt and other local beers from the back of a model "A" truck.

The business grew steadily and East Side Beverage became a major area distributor 1976 when Miller Brewing Company appointed the Company its exclusive distributor in the Twin Cities area. Rapidly increasing sales of Lite, High Life and other Miller products necessitated the Company move to its present location at 1260 Grey Fox Road in Arden Hills in 1979. Its 185,000 square foot facility includes the largest beer keg cooler in the upper Midwest (20,000 square feet). The facility is temperature controlled and meets, or exceeds standards required to maintain the highest beer quality.

In the spring of 1985, J.J. Taylor Distributing Company of Minnesota, Inc., a subsidiary of J. J. Taylor Companies, Inc. acquired East Side Beverage. The new management team also acquired the marketing challenges that faced the previous owners: extreme price sensitivity, declining sales trends and eroding market share. However, the Company overcame all three. Through steady investment in skilled manpower, marketing, superior customer service and modern equipment and acquisitions, the Company became the dominant beer distributor in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

The Company achieved the number "1" position in the market in January 1989. In addition to Miller products the Company distributes products of other breweries including Grain Belt, Heineken, Guinness and strong regional micro beers, Leinenkugel and Summit.

More than 1,800,000 people live in the Company’s territory and it services more than 2,200 retail customers in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. The Company employs 170 people, most of whom have many years experience in the wholesale beer business.

The future is always difficult to project. But, with the rapid growth of the vibrant Twin Cities economy, steady population increases and low unemployment, the Company’s strong brands should continue to experience strong growth.

Ft. Myers | Contact Info

J.J. Taylor Distributing Ft.Myers-Naples, Inc. was formed in July 2001 with the simultaneous acquisition of Wm. Thies & Sons (MBCo) and Palm Distributing, LLC (Coors) located in Ft.Myers and Sarasota Florida. All 4 branches were then combined into 2 branches located in Ft.Myers. The main branch is located in south Ft.Myers and is primarily home to the Off Premise sales department, Tell sell department, Delivery department, Sign Shop, M.I.S. Department, Accounting Department and warehouse package storage. The secondary warehouse is located in central Ft.Myers and is primarily home to the On Premise Sales department, Driver Sales department and warehouse Keg Storage. Both warehouses required extensive renovations in order to accommodate the extra personnel, equipment and storage needed to service the same territories that 4 warehouses used to service. A new state of the art facility is scheduled to replace these 2 branches in the Fall of 2003.

J.J. Taylor Distribution Ft.Myers-Naples services the largest geographical territory of any Florida distributor. The Company services almost 3000 On and Off Premise accounts in 8 plus Florida counties covering over 8500 square miles including the beaches along the Gulf of Mexico from Venice to Marco Island and also East through the rural cattle ranches and orange groves thru Clewiston, Lake Okeechobee, Sebring, Avon Park and Everglades City. This company utilizes numerous sales and delivery schemes including driver-sell, tell sell, draft driver sell, pre-sell and bulk delivery to handle 5.5 million cases from 29 beer suppliers including Miller, Coors, Heineken, Guinness, Pabst, Yuengling, Boston Beer, Labatt/Interbrew and Becks, plus non alcohol beverages such as Arnold Palmer Iced Tea.

The retail configuration in this market is a mix of chain grocery and convenience stores doing over 60% of the volume and hundreds of independent on and off premise customers doing the rest. Beer volume is highly seasonal with tourism, agriculture and winter residency being the major factors in South Florida. The “season” lasts from November thru Easter.

J.J Taylor Distributing Ft.Myers-Naples, along with its major suppliers are primary sponsors for many of the largest and highest profile events in the area. J.J Taylor and Miller Lite are long time sponsors of the giant Everglades Seafood Festival and many Hispanic events. J.J. Taylor and Coors handles Florida’s largest in-shore fishing tournament (The Caloosa Catch & Release). Our company, Coors, Miller, Heineken, Guinness and others sponsor a variety of events like the PRCA sanctioned Chute out Rodeo in Arcadia, the Off Shore Power Boat Races off Ft.Myers Beach and the annual Taste of the Islands restaurant competition on Sanibel Island. JJ Taylor and our brands are major sponsors of major league baseball Spring Training supporting the Minnesota Twins and the Boston Red Sox.

J.J. Taylor Distributing has been the recipient of numerous sales awards and recognized for various achievements by suppliers, community organizations, customers and government agencies. With the ever-growing population in Southwest Florida and uncompromising goal to out service the competition, the strong brands of J.J. Taylor Distributing Ft.Myers-Naples will continue to rapidly grow in Sales and Market share.

Tampa | Contact Info

J. J. TAYLOR DISTRIBUTING TAMPA BAY, INC.

In July of 1997, J.J. Taylor Companies, Inc. established themselves in the Tampa St. Petersburg area under the name of J.J. Taylor Distributing Tampa Bay, Inc. (JJTTB) by acquiring Anthony Distributors, Inc. (ADI). Anthony was founded in 1940 by Salvatore M. Italiano and his son Anthony to sell wine and beer in the Ybor City area of Tampa. At the time of the acquisition, ADI operated out of three warehouses located in Tampa, St Petersburg, and Holiday. They serviced the four county area of Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando Counties, delivering six million cases of beer annually to 4,500 retailers. The major brewers that ADI represented were Miller Brewing Company (MBCo), The Guinness Bass Import Company (GBIC), The Boston Beer Company (BBC), Coors Brewing Company (partial territory), and Heineken USA (partial territory). In an effort to better align wholesaler and brewer territories, Hernando County distribution rights were sold to Cone Distributing, and a “brand swap” was completed with Sutton Distributing. The result of this “brand swap” gave J.J. Taylor Heineken USA brands in the entire three county territory and Sutton Distributing Coors Brewing Company brands in the same territory.

In September 1997, all routes that originated out of the Holiday warehouse were moved to the Tampa warehouse, and the Holiday location was closed. In February 1999, all of the routes that originated out of the St. Petersburg warehouse were moved to the Tampa warehouse, and the St. Petersburg facility was closed. This consolidation brought the existing Tampa warehouse to capacity. Work was begun on designing a new facility.

The final major organizational change to set the company up for channel segmented selling was implemented in February 2000. JJTTB now had three selling systems that were able to provide the different types of service required by Supermarkets/Liquor Stores, Convenience/Gas Stores and On-Premise Retailers.

In November 2000 the Company acquired Sutton Distributing. With the addition of the brands from CBC, Pabst Brewing Company (partial territory), Beck’s North America (BNA), and Yuengling, this acquisition made J. J. Taylor Distributing Tampa Bay, Inc. the largest distributor with the most brands in the area. The existing Tampa warehouse was now severely undersized, but the new facility was only four weeks from completion. On December 2, 2000, JJTTB moved its operation in to its new 245,000 square foot state of the facility located at 5102 16th Avenue South in Tampa. The facility has 118,000 sq ft of controlled temperature, 21,000 sq ft draft/Coors cooler, and 20,000 square feet of office space on 23 acres.

In April 2001, JJTTB purchased St. Petersburg Beverage. This purchase completed the brand consolidation in the three county territory as JJTTB acquired the remaining brand territory (Pinellas and West Pasco Counties) for Pabst Brewing Company (PBC), Molson Brands, Presidente, and Red Stripe. At same time, the Modelo brands were moved in to the Anheuser-Busch network with the sale of those brands from JJTTB and St. Petersburg Beverage.

In July 2001, J. J. Taylor Companies, Inc. continued to expand the Tampa Division by purchasing Wm. Thies & Sons and Palm Distributing, LLC in Sarasota. At the same time J. J. Taylor acquired Wm. Theis & Sons and Palm Distributing, LLC in Ft. Myers, establishing J. J. Taylor Distributing Ft. Myers-Naples, Inc.

Today JJTTB delivers over 11,000,000 cases to 6,000 retail accounts in six counties (Hardee, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas and Sarasota), a geographical territory of 4,100 square miles and population of 2.75 million. We proudly represents the brands of Miller Brewing Company, Coors Brewing Company, Heineken USA, Guinness Bass Import Company, Labatt USA, Beck’s North America, Pabst Brewing Company, Mike’s Hard Beverage Company, The Boston Beer Company, Yuengling and twenty other suppliers of fine malt beverages.

On an average day, JJTTB’s 350 employees sell and deliver 42,000 cases to 1,000 accounts. 63 sales representatives inventory, merchandise and order product on Symbol Palm Pilots, sending and receiving data wirelessly via the Internet. A total of 75 delivery trucks “hit the streets” each day; 17 bulk, 45 package and 13 draft/combo units.

J.J. Taylor Distributing Tampa Bay, Inc. is committed to being the First Choice Beer Wholesaler for its customers, employees, suppliers and investors. Doing so will result in continued revenue and market share growth.