Matagrano, an independent South San Francisco-based Anheuser-Busch distributor, has inked a deal to acquire Bottomley Distributing, which services Silicon Valley and the South Bay Area.
Brewbound has confirmed that Matagrano will add roughly 1.8 million cases, taking its total case volume to as much as 6.5 million cases. The transaction is expected to close in February, pending supplier approvals. OMAC Beverage advisors represented Matagrano.
In 2020, Bottomley had lost the rights to the Constellation Brands portfolio of Mexican imports to the Reyes Beer Division during the supplier’s forced consolidations in California. Other large suppliers also defected from Bottomley and Matagrano (Sierra Nevada, Diageo), while Boston Beer Company moved from Bottomley and Lagunitas from Matagrano.
Matagrano has since bolstered its business through acquisitions, including the Stone Brewing portfolio in Northern California in 2021 and the wholly owned A-B One distributor in northern Santa Clara County and San Jose in 2022.
Bottomley’s territory included San Jose, Milpitas, Los Gatos, Morgan Hill, Gilroy, Campbell, San Martin, and Coyote. The distributor’s portfolio includes A-B brands, Golden State Cider, Heineken USA, Gordon Biersch and bottled water brand Essentia, among others.
Matagrano’s craft beer portfolio includes Firestone Walker, 21st Amendment, Fort Point Beer Co., Modern Times, Russian River, Seismic, Trumer Pils, Deschutes, Boneyard, Bear Republic, Gordon Biersch, Drake’s, Founders, and Ninkasi, among others. Matagrano’s beyond beer book includes Boochcraft, Jiant, Loverboy, and BeatBox, among others, as well as popular non-alcoholic offerings such as Prime, Liquid Death, and Alani Nu
This appears to be among the first distributor deals of 2024. In a newsletter earlier this week, Ippolito Christon & Co. president Andy Christon noted that deal activity in the middle tier “slowed 30-40% in 2023 to about 20 transactions, mostly small A-B and craft deals.”
Christon attributed the slowdown to the A-B Bud Light “Black Swan event” along with “high interest rates; an uncertain economic outlook; tightening lender policies; and growing concern and uncertainty about brand values.” However, Christon expects softer interest rates in 2024 to help “stimulate deal flow as banks loosen their purse strings.”