La Vergne, Tennessee, June 14, 2016 — DBI Beverage Inc., parent of a corporate group that on a consolidated basis comprises one of the largest beverage distributors in California and one of the nation’s largest distributors of its kind, has named Paul M. Schmitt as Chief Operating Officer, effective July 18, 2016. Schmitt will come to DBI Beverage from Coors Distributing Company (CDC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of MillerCoors LLC located in Denver, Colorado. He will relocate to California and be based in DBI Beverage’s West Sacramento, California facility, reporting to Mark D. Ramer, DBI Beverage’s Chief Executive Officer.
At CDC, which generates $300 million annually in revenue, employs 361 people, and services approximately 4,600 retail customers in the Denver metro area, Schmitt currently serves as Senior Director of Sales and Marketing. In that role, Schmitt leads senior management teams in the areas of off-premise channel sales, on-premise channel sales, specialty markets and concessions sales, marketing, and business development. He also serves on the MillerCoors Central Region Distributor Business Council and the Central Region 3.2 Council. In those capacities Schmitt developed and led the first-ever Talent Exchange Program with MillerCoors and CDC and has been involved in providing insight on various projects for MillerCoors.
Schmitt joined CDC in 2012 after serving as General Manager of the MillerCoors Colorado, Utah, Montana, and Wyoming Management Unit based in Denver, a position to which he was appointed in July 2008 as part of the MillerCoors joint venture integration process. During the eight years prior to that, Schmitt held various positions of increasing responsibility at Coors Brewing Company as General Manager for North and South Carolina, District Business Manager for New York and Vermont, Retail Account Executive covering 19 chains in the Metro New York and northeastern U.S. market areas, and Field Sales Manager covering the Metro New York market, working closely with the Manhattan Beer Team. Schmitt started his beverage career with Pepsi in 1984.
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DBI Beverage Inc. and Ingram Entertainment Inc. are both owned by David Ingram and headquartered in La Vergne, Tennessee, outside of Nashville. Ingram founded DBI Beverage in 2002. Since then, its subsidiaries have acquired distributorships in nine California markets: Chico, Modesto, Napa, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Jose, Truckee, and Ukiah. For 2016, the DBI Beverage group anticipates approximately $615 million in total revenues from distribution of approximately 30 million cases of beverage product. More information, including supplier and brand information, is available at www.dbibeverage.com.
