Not even halfway into 2025, Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) has hemorrhaged key supplier accounts in markets across the country, and especially in California. Now, VinePair has learned, the country’s second-largest wine-and-spirits distributor will be departing the Golden State entirely at the beginning of September.
Over the weekend, social media was abuzz with versions of this rumor. This morning, I received corroboration and more information on it from two beverage-alcohol producers on either end of the volume spectrum, one of which currently does business with RNDC in California and the other of which works for a firm that did until earlier this decade. Both sources told me the same thing: the badly bloodied wholesaler had just internally announced plans to exit its spiraling California business by September 1. Two additional sources, both former RNDC employees in California who are still in touch with colleagues at the wholesaler, told me likewise. These sources varyingly characterize this move as RNDC “leaving,” “exiting,” and “shutting down” its California business.
