More success for smaller guys

The Denver Post profiles Jeff Coleman and Distinguished Brands, the importing company her runs.

The story reminds us of the role the big players play in the beer buisness. The three largest brewers in American bre 81% of the beer sold here. The top five importers accounted for almost 80% of the more than 25 million barrels of imported beer sold in 2005.

DBI is definitely one of the little guys (seeling comparable to 47,000 barrels), but like American craft brewers its brands see sales surging: Fuller’s is up nearly 21% in the past year, O’Hara’s is up 53%, and Czechvar is up 36%.