Longtime Spokane beverage distributor B&B Distributors Inc. has expanded its distribution area in Washington and North Idaho and has changed its name to King Beverage Inc.


In the expansion, King Beverage bought exclusive distribution rights for Anheuser-Busch products in Pullman, Ellensburg, Walla Walla, Moscow, Lewiston, and Clarkston, launching the companys first venture in Idaho, says Ted Rusnak, the companys owner, president, and CEO. He declines to disclose the terms of the transaction.


The Spokane company bought the Ellensburg distribution rights from a company based there called Jansen Distributors, and bought the Walla Walla and Clarkston rights from Valley Beverage Inc., of Clarkston.


Also, King Beverage purchased a Pullman-based company called Dandee Inc., which operated as Frontier Distributing and owned distributorships in Pullman, Moscow, and Lewiston, Rusnak says. Along with the rights to those distribution areas, King Beverage bought a 40,000-square-foot warehouse in Pullman and a 20,000-square-foot warehouse in Lewiston, he says.


King Beverage will close the warehouse in Pullman, but plans to use the Lewiston facility as a distribution center, Rusnak says. The company will examine the possibility of expanding that warehouse soon, he says.


The expansion increases King Beverages distribution area to more than 30,000 square miles, more than double the area the company previously served, Rusnak says. It now serves all of Spokane, Whitman, Garfield, and Asotin counties and parts of Lincoln County, he says.


With the expansion, the distributor expects to deliver more than 6 million cases of Anheuser-Busch beverages annually, he says.


About 60 people employed by the companies that King Beverage recently bought have begun working for the Spokane company, bringing its staff size to more than 200, Rusnak says. He expects that King Beverage will hire more people as demands on its work force increase, but declines to estimate how many people it will need.


B&B bought Anheuser-Busch distribution rights in Yakima and the Tri-Cities in 2002 from R&R Beverage Inc., of Union Gap, Wash., and bought distribution rights in the Columbia River Gorge area from West Wind Beverage last year, Rusnak says. As part of the former transaction, B&B bought a 100,000-square-foot warehouse in Yakima and leased a 40,000-square-foot warehouse in the Tri-Cities from R&R, he says.


King Beverage will distribute Anheuser-Busch products through those warehouses and its facilities in Lewiston and here, Rusnak says. The companys Spokane distribution center is located at 6715 E. Mission and has about 110,000 square feet of warehouse space, he says.


As an exclusive Anheuser-Busch distributorship, King Beverage sells various beers made by Budweiser, Michelob, Busch, and Natural Light, as well as ODouls and Bacardi Silver brands, Rusnak says. The Spokane distributor also will sell a number of other beverages including those made by the Corona, Widmer, and Redhook breweries, he says.


Rusnak, who bought B&B in 1980, says he wanted to change the 57-year-old companys name to King Beverage because the company was operating under multiple distributorship names.