Madrigrano to consolidate beer biz
Local facility to house former WOW, Tosa firm
Village of Sussex — Aldo Madrigrano has shifted ownership of WOW Distributing to his new company, Beer Capitol Distributing-Lake Country, by buying out his WOW partners - family members Thomas Madrigrano, WOW Vice President, and Gina Madrigrano Friebus, WOW Vice President of Administration.
The new company, which Aldo Madrigrano owns jointly with Ronald Fowler of San Diego, will move the operations of Beer Capitol Distributing Co. in Wauwatosa, which the pair own jointly with Michael Merriman, to the Sussex facility.
Madrigrano said he expects to add about 120,000 square feet of warehousing and office space to the current 150,000-square-foot Sussex facility by May or June.
Madrigrano said he will move the entire Wauwatosa operation to Sussex, but did not say whether all the Wauwatosa employees would make the move, too, nor whether the consolidation would mean job losses in Sussex.
Though Aldo Madrigrano said through corporate spokeswoman Mary Brophy of Jacobson Rost, a Sheboygan marketing firm, that "it is our policy not to give out employee numbers," Sussex Assistant Village Administrator Jeremy Smith said documents filed by WOW with the village show the company now employs about 145 people and expects to add about 25 more once it completes its expansion.
The company's parking lot includes 150 employee parking spaces and will not be enlarged as part of the expansion, according to company plans submitted to the Sussex Plan Commission in July.
Wauwatosa city clerk staff said they didn't know how many people work for Beer Capitol Distributing.
"I couldn't be happier to announce this acquisition," Madrigrano said in a company press release, "as it represents a new milestone for our businesses and an opportunity to enhance our reputation for exemplary customer service and sales support by achieving shared operating efficiencies."
Madrigrano also would not reveal WOW's financial figures, but in July the Wall Street firm of Dunn & Brad Street put the company's annual revenues at $27.5 million.
The new Beer Capitol Distributing-Lake Country and the transplanted Beer Capitol Distributing sell national and international beers from MillerCoors, Pabst and Heineken, among others, plus beers from local brewers, including Lakefront, Capital and Stevens Point breweries.
Having sold off WOW's Dodge County assets, the new company will serve 1,900 retailers in Waukesha, Washington and Ozaukee counties, while Beer Capitol Distributing (which a company press release called the largest beer wholesaler in Wisconsin) will continue to serve its 2,000 customers in Milwaukee County.