Julius Schepps Co. is selling its liquor and wine distribution business to one of the two remaining major industry players in the Metroplex.
A partnership between San Antonio based Block Distributing Co. and the Goldring family of New Orleans will buy the Schepps operation under undisclosed terms. The deal should close in the next few weeks.
"Schepps was a great opportunity for us," Alan Dreeben, executive vice president of Block Distributing, told the San Antonio Business Journal. "We've known each other's businesses for about 30 years, and our attitudes about the business are very much in sync. They're absolutely one of the best suppliers in the industry."
Schepps' imported beer lines are being acquired separately by Miller of Dallas Inc. and Miller Distributing of Fort Worth Inc.
The Schepps family will retain a subsidiary involved in real estate development.
Schepps carries several liquor and wine lines including Bacardi, Inglenook and Kendall-Jackson.
The Schepps family has a prominent history in Dallas. The Julius Schepps Freeway, or Interstate 45 in southeast Dallas, was named after the civic leader and philanthropist. Another Schepps family member named Julius was a longtime Dallas grocer. The family sold its controlling interest in its dairy business in 1985.
Block and Goldrings operate under a partnership called BG Distribution Partners Ltd., which last November bought Houston-based liquor distributor Tarrant Distributors Inc. for about $70 million.
The company employs about 400 in South Texas and has annual sales of more than $100 million.
Another Dallas-based distributor, Glazer's Wholesale Distributors of Dallas is working on a deal to acquire American Beverage Co., a San Antonio based liquor and wine distributor.
The two companies reportedly are in negotiations, and industry insiders have said they expect a deal to be announced any day.
Glazer's is the country's sixth-largest wine and spirits distributor with annual sales of about $650 million and about 2,000 employees.
Glazer's liquor and wine lines in Texas include Canadian Club, Hiram Walker and August Sebastiani, while American Beverage is one of the three main distributors of wine, beer and liquor in South and Central Texas.
If both the Schepps and Glazer's deals are completed, BG Distribution and Glazer's will dominate the Texas liquor distribution industry. The number of major distributors in the state would drop from four to two.
Liquor distributors across the country have consolidated in recent years in part because of waning consumer demand for hard liquor.
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{Lidji Dorey & Hooper represented The Julius Schepps Company in these transactions.}
