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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Wholesale changes

Rick Bonino

Two of the Inland Northwest’s leading craft beer distributors are joining forces as part of a three-way deal.

Click Wholesale Distributing and Click Distributing East – the latter of which services Eastern Washington and North Idaho – are being sold to Vancouver, Wash.-based Craig Stein Beverage (CSB).

And Stein in turn is partnering with The Odom Corporation, headquartered in Bellevue, to form a joint operation called Northwest Beverages that will cover all of Washington and Idaho. The transaction is scheduled to close March 31.

Click East distributes local breweries including Iron Goat, Paradise Creek, Selkirk Abbey and Twelve String along with such well-known regional players as Boneyard, Chuckanut, Double Mountain, Ecliptic, Fort George, Hale’s, Pelican, pFriem and Pike.

Odom’s Eastern Washington portfolio includes Laughing Dog, MickDuff’s, No-Li, Trickster’s and Wallace Brewing along with a wide range of regional and national brands, as well as the MillerCoors line (like CSB in its market area).   

A common issue in such mergers is whether smaller breweries will benefit from broader distribution networks, or risk receiving less attention as part of larger portfolios.

According to a press release, “The existing Click organizations will continue to operate independently for the foreseeable future. Click will offer its highly successful personnel and best practices to the overall Odom and CSB organizations and vice versa.  This unique combination will make the whole greater than the sum of the parts.”

"We are excited that the strength of Odom and CSB combined with the addition of the Click organizations will create a larger and stronger Northwest distribution network,” Craig Stein is quoted in the release.