Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: BROWN, REID A.

Brown is among the fourth generation to run Brown Distributing, a company that began in 1919 as a bottling operation for cherry cola and has grown into a major beverage-distribution business. He joined the family business in 2006. His brother, Jason Brown, came on board in 1999 and serves as vice president.

Brown Distributing serves more than 2,000 retailers throughout Virginia, delivering more than 5 million cases of domestic and craft beers, ciders, seltzers and nonalcoholic beverages annually, with its primary suppliers being AB InBev, Heineken USA and national and regional breweries. It has more than 200 employees.

The company acquired craft beer distribution companies in Virginia and Florida in 2009. While it sold off the South Florida business, it retained a 120,000-square-foot warehousing facility in West Palm Beach. In October 2023, Brown Distributing sold that facility for $31 million to Boise Cascade, a lumber supplier, in an all-cash deal.

Brown has been an active player on the beer and brewery scene, helping create the Richmond Beer Elite group, which provides an online forum for the local beer community, including competitive distributors and breweries.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.