Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, an unsurprising move that puts an end to a long year of the distributor exiting markets and selling off territory. How the mighty have fallen is one storyline – the second-largest bev-alc distributor in the U.S. at one point generated revenue of more than $12 billion across 40 states. But that’s not the devastating storyline, particularly because the mighty are still just fine, according to some people. Brian Rosen, founder of InvestBev, alleges that the family owners of RNDC are “billionaires anyway” and “they spent the last year, while going bankrupt, taking revenue.” The families behind RNDC are a story for another day, for now we’re more focused on the other players in this story: suppliers who have already gone months without payment and are now in the back of the line to collect. The distributor has been selling off territory for months, and some suppliers with a new contract at acquiring distributors may see debts paid – but others face no recovery at all. Many suppliers have been in an incredibly tough situation: afraid to lose placements at retailers, they’ve continued shipping product to RNDC for months without payment. Some of those suppliers have had to pull back on innovation or laid off salesforce, which then puts them in a disadvantage if they are to approach new distributor partners.
"It’s putting brands out of business that should be able to be actively conducting business in the marketplace.” – Tara Hannaford, founder of Attollo Spirits, said. Read the full breakdown | 
