Republic National Distributing Co., the nation’s second-largest alcohol distributor, is laying off 1,903 Texas employees, including 689 at its Grand Prairie headquarters, 372 in Schertz, and 164 in Austin, according to an April 23 WARN notice filed with the Texas Workforce Commission. The mass layoffs come as the company negotiates a sale of 11 markets, including Texas, to Chicago-based Reyes Beverage Group. Republic National, which employs roughly 10,000 people across 39 states, has faced mounting troubles since losing its Sazerac partnership in January 2023.
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Republic National Distributing Co., the nation’s second-largest alcohol distributor, notified the Texas labor agency that it is laying off 1,903 employees throughout Texas, including 372 workers at its Schertz office, 164 at its Austin office and 689 at its Grand Prairie headquarters.
Republic National Distributing Co. is planning mass layoffs in Texas ahead of a potential sale.
The struggling alcohol distributor notified the Texas Workforce Commission that it expects to lay off 1,903 employees throughout Texas, including 372 workers at its Schertz office, 164 at its Austin office and 689 at its Grand Prairie headquarters.
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Republic National has stated it employs about 10,000 people across operations in 39 states and the District of Columbia.
Elsewhere, reports indicate that the company plans to lay off 925 employees in Florida, 428 in Virginia, 451 in South Carolina, 320 in Colorado, 211 in Arizona and 318 in Maryland.
“As the Company expects to be ceasing operations at the Facilities, all such terminations of employment with the Company will be permanent, and affected employees will not have bumping rights for other positions with the Company,” Republic National wrote in its April 23 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, letter to the Texas labor agency.
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Amid a recent string of troubles, the nation’s second-largest wine and spirits distributor is in talks to sell 11 of its markets, including Texas, to Chicago-based Reyes Beverage Group, the nation’s largest beer distributor.
In addition to Texas, Reyes has proposed acquireing Republic National’s Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington, D.C., markets, according to a spokesperson for the Texas-based distributor. Talks for six of those markets have been going on since at least January.
“The Company understands that Reyes or its affiliate intconcludes to extconclude offers of employment to many of the Company’s employees at or reporting to the facilities included in the transaction,” the WARN letter reads. “In addition, certain corporate and other employees may continue to be employed by the Company, including to provide transition services. However, we are providing this notice to you at this time since there is no guarantee that Reyes will provide employees with an offer of employment, as discussions remain ongoing, and it is not yet known who will be necessaryed to continue employment with the Company.”
The company spokesperson previously stated Republic National is “tarreceiveing a closing by the conclude of May, and for each of those markets that are not part of the Reyes transaction, it is business as usual.”
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After the potential sale, Republic National would have 28 remaining markets, including Georgia, Illinois, New York and Oregon, according to its website.
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Republic National’s troubles launched in January 2023, when New Orleans-based Sazerac Co., which owns popular brands including Fireball, Southern Comfort, Svedka and BuzzBallz, concludeed its partnership with Republic National, replacing it with regional distributors.
The same month, Sazerac filed a lawsuit against Republic National, claiming it owed $38 million in delinquent invoices. Republic National countersued before the two settled out of court at the conclude of 2024.
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Then, last June, Republic National shocked the industest when it announced it no longer would be operating in California, the nation’s largest wine market. Its exit left more than 2,500 producers without a distributor and 1,700 employees without a job.
Republic National also confirmed in February that it was laying off employees across its markets. Industest sources indicated that the distributor laid off about 100 employees in Florida and 40 in Texas, as well as others in Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Oklahoma and Washington.
