B&B Distributors Inc., a longtime Spokane beverage distributor, has agreed to sell its Spokane-area distribution rights for Coors and Keystone beers to Odom Northwest Beverage, also of Spokane.


In addition, B&B plans to buy the distribution rights for Anheuser-Busch products in the Tri-Cities and Yakima areasits first expansion outside of the Spokane market, says Ted Rusnak, the companys president and CEO. Rusnak declines to disclose the terms of the transactions.


B&B is buying the Yakima and Tri-Cities distribution rights from R&R Beverage Co. Inc., of Union Gap, Wash. Along with the rights, B&B will buy a 100,000-square-foot warehouse in Yakima owned by R&R, and will lease a 40,000-square-foot warehouse owned by the company in the Tri-Cities, Rusnak says. About 100 employees of R&R will work for B&B when the purchase is final, he says.


B&B, which was founded here in 1947 and acquired by Rusnak in 1980, has carried Anheuser-Busch products here for 40 years, he says. Those products include the various beers made by Budweiser, Michelob, and Busch, as well as products made by the Redhook and Widmer breweries, he says.


B&B acquired Spokane distribution rights for Coors in 1994, and its divestiture of those rights represents a trend nationwide, Rusnak says.


As a company, were going to continue to expand geographically with Anheuser-Busch productsthats our strategy, he says.


Odom Northwest Beverage is a unit of Seattle-based Odom Corp. The company also operates in the Spokane area as Northwest Select Wines & Spirits.