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32 WINES&VINES September 2017 DISTRIBUTOR MARKET 2017 Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits Headquarters: Miami, Fla. States served: 36 Offices: 128 U.S. wineries represented: 1,178 Chairman: Harvey Chaplin Executive vice chairman: Bennett Glazer CEO: Wayne Chaplin President: Sheldon Stein Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits is by far the largest wine distribu- tor in the United States. It serves 36 states and 1,178 wineries, ac- cording to Wines Vines Analytics. The firm generated revenue esti- mated by Forbes magazine at $16.5 billion in 2016. It sold 150 million cases of wine and spirits the same year to more than 350,000 retail and restaurant ac- counts—that's more than twice the sales revenue giant producer Constellation Brands posted in 2016, including wine, beer and spirits. Southern Glazer's was formed by a January 2016 agreement to merge Southern (already the biggest distributor) and Glazer's, which had revenues about a third as large as Southern. The two had acquired several other distributors since 2010 including Premier, Stoller, Odom, Olinger, Alliance, Sterling and Union. Southern Glazer's leadership stems from the two founding families: the Chaplins, one of the original families of Southern Wine & Spirits, and the Glazers, who founded Glazer's Inc. Wayne Chaplin from South- ern is CEO of the merged companies. He has been with the company since 1984 and holds a juris doctor degree from the University of Miami. His father, Harvey Chaplin, is now chairman. From the other side, Bennett Glazer is executive vice chairman of Southern Glazer's and president of Glazer's Inc., which is the parent company of all Glazer's subsidiaries. He joined Glazer's in 1968. Sheldon "Shelly" Stein is president of Southern Glazer's and came to the Glazer's firm in 2010 with a background in investment banking and law. While celebrating its No. 1 position, Southern Glazer's also currently faces lawsuits filed by New York and California bar owners who allege overcharging and other illegal business practices. Republic National Distributing Co. Headquarters: Grand Prairie, Texas States served: 21 Offices: 42 U.S. wineries represented: 751 President and CEO: Tom Cole EVP and COO: Robert Hendrickson Republic National Distributing Co., known as RNDC to the wine trade, is the nation's second-larg- est wine distributor, representing 751 wineries, according to Wines Vines Analytics, and bringing in an estimated 2016 revenue of $6.5 billion, according to Forbes, in 22 states largely in the East, South and Midwest. The company's roots go back to the N. Goldring Corp., a beer distributor in Florida before Pro- hibition. The present company evolved and grew via mergers and ac- quisitions to include the Block Distributing Co. and National Distributing Co. as well as many others. RNDC formed in 2006 when the Republic and National firms merged. Forbes ranks RNDC as the 49th largest private company in the United States, moving it up from No. 85 in 2009. It counts 42 offices across the country and is the market leader in Texas, where it holds a 63% market share with $354 million in annual sales through the first quarter of this year, according to Wines Vines Analytics. After serving at the helm of several predecessor firms including Magnolia Marketing Co., Tom Cole is now the president of RNDC. He is on the board of directors of the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America and its government affairs committee, and he is active in New Orleans business and civic organizations. Robert Hendrickson is the executive vice president and chief operat- ing officer, a position he assumed in 2009 after serving as president- western states. Hendrickson has been part of RNDC since the beginning when, in 1997, the former Tarrant Co. and the former Julius Schepps Co. were merged to create Republic Beverage Co. Top 10 U.S. Wine Distributors An introduction to the 10 wine distributors and their executives, ranked by their importance to U.S. wineries By Jim Gordon T his first-time ranking of the top 10 U.S. wine distributors is intended to help domestic wineries as they confront the ongoing challenges of distributor consolidation. Wines Vines Analytics, the data research arm of Wines & Vines, created this top 10 list using unique criteria chosen to emphasize the interests of wineries, including how many and which U.S. wineries a distributor represents, the percentage of population in the states they cover and other factors. Note that there is a significant break in size between the top four distributors and numbers five through 10. Distribution of imports, beer and spirits were not considered in this methodology. 1 2 Wayne Chaplin Tom Cole