Initial brands to be carried by Kendall’s will include Doomsday Brewing in Washougal; Astoria Brewing in Astoria, Oregon; and Three Brothers Winery and Bethany Winery, both in Ridgefield.
Hartney said the company will employ seven people to start, with hopes for expansion both in the number of employees and the brands carried.
“We plan to add more locally-produced brands to our distribution offerings as we go along,” he said. “The ability to offer good-paying local jobs with benefits is rewarding to us.
“Long-term we hope to expand to other brands but remain small enough that we can be nimble. We want to focus on a select few local brands that otherwise might not be promoted the way we hope to do.”
Hartney said the idea of creating the new distributing company had been in the works for two or three years, and came with input from some of Corwin’s customers. Getting state and federal licensing was an arduous process that took months, he added. Hartney previously was vice president of sales at Corwin.
Kelso was selected as the new headquarters, he said, because it is central to the counties that will be served.
While the ownership of Corwin Beverage and Kendall’s is the same, the two companies operate independently, as required by law, he said.
Ridgefield-based Corwin Beverage was founded in 1941 by Laura and Kyle Kendall, along with their daughter Barbara and her husband, Harold Corwin, according to Courtney Barker, vice president of marketing and communications at Corwin and a great-granddaughter of the founders. It is still privately held by their descendants. The company holds distributing rights for this region for Pepsi, Dr. Pepper and other brands, employing about 120.
“Laura and Kyle owned a distributing company in Bend, Oregon, called Kendall’s Pioneer Distributing, before moving to the Vancouver area in the late 1930s,” she said.
Since Corwin Beverage is privately owned, the company doesn’t make public its annual sales figures, but Barker said the company distributes more than three million cases of non-alcoholic beverages annually in Clark, Cowlitz, Skamania and Wahkiakum counties.
Hartney said Kendall’s will focus on distributing its wine and beer offerings to local high-end restaurants and convenience stores.
“We want to make sure that locally-produced wine and beer labels aren’t being ignored in the marketplace,” he said. “At the same time, these local producers are doing us a favor in allowing us to distribute their brands. They’re great partners and we hope this new venture will enable us all to grow together.”
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