Coors Distributing Co., the Denver-based beer wholesaler that trucks Corona, Modelo and White Claw across Colorado’s Front Range, is asking a court to stop two of its biggest suppliers from walking away. Constellation Brands and Mark Anthony Brands both notified the company in September that they want to end their distribution agreements, and Coors Distributing Co. says losing them would gut roughly 40 percent of its volume overnight.
The dispute landed in Denver District Court on September 25, when the law firm Bartlit Beck filed separate motions for a preliminary injunction on behalf of Coors Distributing Co., according to The Denver Post. The company, a subsidiary of Molson Coors, argues that neither supplier gave a reason for the termination and that cutting ties without cause violates Colorado’s beer franchise law. It’s asking the court to keep the existing agreements in place and send the underlying dispute to mandatory arbitration instead.
The stakes are concrete and large. Constellation Brands and Mark Anthony Brands together represent 21 of the 171 brands Coors Distributing Co. carries, per the same Denver Post report, but those 21 brands carry outsized weight — accounting for about 40 percent of the wholesaler’s total volume, according to Brewbound figures cited in the Post’s reporting. Separately, Beverage Business Briefing estimated that Constellation’s proposed exit alone puts around 6 million cases of annual distribution volume at risk for the wholesaler, which moves product across Colorado’s central Front Range from Boulder to Limon.
A Decades-Old Business Built on Trucks and Trust
Coors Distributing Co. isn’t some fly-by-night operation. It started in 1971 with 14 delivery trucks hauling refrigerated Coors Banquet cans and bottles across Denver, according to the Post, and has grown into a company with 450 employees distributing products from the foothill counties east of Boulder through metro Denver to Limon. The company says it built customer relationships and goodwill over 30 years and had even received top distribution-service honors from both Constellation Brands and Mark Anthony Brands…