Large beer distributor J.J. Taylor is selling its Minnesota business

Minnesota's largest beer distributor is being sold and will lay off 180 employees this spring, though many are expected to be offered jobs with the new owner.

Breakthru Beverage Group is buying J.J. Taylor's Minnesota beer business for an undisclosed sum, the companies announced last week. The sale is expected to close at the end of May, when the layoffs would occur.

"We understand that the buyer is interested in hiring most of our current employees to join their team," J.J. Taylor's chief human resources officer David Miller, wrote in a layoff notice the state received last week. "However, we do not control to whom the buyer may offer jobs."

Breakthru, which is headquartered in New York and Chicago, already has operations in Minnesota. It plans to consolidate the two businesses at J.J. Taylor's 600,000-square-foot warehouse in northeast Minneapolis.

"This combination will dramatically enhance operations in the Twin Cities," said Tom Bene, Breakthru's chief executive. The combined business will carry 65 beer brands.

The company did not respond to a question about how many employees it would be carrying over, but said in a news release it plans to "expand their associate salesforce."

Many J.J. Taylor employees are represented by the Teamsters union, which led a seven-week drivers strike in 2018. Union contracts often contain successor clauses that dictate what happens to the contract and represented employees in the event of a sale.

Officials with Minneapolis-based Teamsters Local 792 and Teamsters Joint Council 32 did not return messages seeking comment Monday.

Florida-based J.J. Taylor entered the state when it bought East Side Beverage in 1985 and acquired more businesses over the years to become Minnesota's largest beer distributor.