Transforming Network Infrastructure Industry News

[October 09, 2007]

Liquor wholesaler expanding: Jarboe Sales Co. taps a growing market.

(Tulsa World (OK) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Oct. 9--Decades ago, many beer drinkers would be content to kick back with a Budweiser or Coors.

But beer fans have become a lot more adventurous since then, and today they might keep space in their refrigerators for lesser-known brands or even obscure microbrews, said John Jarboe, a partner with Tul sa wine and spirits wholesaler Jarboe Sales Co. and its affiliate, International Beers.

"When we started out in 1959, we just had a few brands of beer," Jarboe said. "Now we have hundreds."

Oklahoma's taste for different types of beers, wines and spirits has helped the company grow by as much as 15 percent over the last two years and inspired its decision to build a $2 million, 45,100-square-foot addition to a 100,000-square-foot warehouse in Tulsa, Jarboe said.

J.B. Jarboe, John Jarboe's son and partner -- and a third-generation member of the family business -- said the company started out with just 1,000 stock items when it was founded.

Today, the supplier to grocery stores, liquor stores and restaurants stocks 7,600 items, with more added each month.

"The country's become more cosmopolitan and willing to try new things," J.B. Jarboe said.

Wine sales have exploded, and the category now occupies 60 percent of the company's warehouse.

Jarboe Sales was founded immediately after Prohibition was repealed in Oklahoma in 1959. John Jarboe's father, Joe Jarboe, was a Kansas resident who saw an opportunity in the state to the south.

John Jarboe said Jarboe Sales Co. and Central Liquor Co. of Oklahoma City are the only distributors that have lasted the entire half-century.

"There have been over 40 wholesalers come and go over the last 48 years," he said.

The Jarboes say Oklahoma is a particularly competitive state for alcohol wholesalers, due in part to laws designed to prevent companies from amassing too much control.

For example, in most states alcohol manufacturers form exclusive contracts with wholesalers. For example, Jim Beam could sign with one wholesaler, making it the only alcohol wholesaler in the state with that product.

"In Texas, a grocery store might have six or seven wholesalers visiting you in a week," John Jarboe said.

Because wholesalers don't get exclusive contracts in Oklahoma, they can carry any product and compete with one another, which keeps down prices.

The tightly regulated system is also the reason cited by large beer makers for their decision not to sell beer over 3.2 percent alcohol in places they're allowed to, such as liquor stores, John Jarboe said.

"The big companies usually control the industry down to the tap in other states, and they don't want to play our game," he said.

The fortunes of Jarboe Sales often mirror the state's economy -- during recessions, people spend less for alcohol.

But though the company is benefiting from good times now, it's not dependent on it for long-term success.

"We've had ups and downs, but we've had steady growth over the years as a whole," John Jarboe said.

Jarboe Sales and International Beers -- a legally separate company that shares management and operations with Jarboe Sales -- are long-established names, yet John Jarboe said the company prefers a modest profile.

So modest, in fact, that its trucks aren't labeled and John Jarboe is reluctant to publicly disclose the location of the company's Tulsa warehouse.

"When you're working with a product like we are, you try to maintain a low profile for safety reasons," he said.

------

Robert Evatt 581-8447

[email protected]

To see more of the Tulsa World, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.tulsaworld.com.
Copyright (c) 2007, Tulsa World, Okla.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

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