Robert Earl Howard, a native of Wrens, Georgia, located just outside of Augusta, Georgia, started and incorporated a company called General Wholesale Company on January 23, 1947. It began as a spirits distributor in Atlanta, and then in Augusta, and eventually to include northern Florida. Mr. Howard and his wife had one child, Jane Howard, who would go on to marry William D. Young. In 1963 Bill Young joined the company and took over the overall management upon the passing of R.E. Howard in 1965. Bill directed the company through years of growth until his sons, Bill Jr., Howard and Steve each joined the business after college.
In 1980, they bought the Stroh/Pabst/Schlitz business in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Later, the Coors Brewing Company (now Molson Coors Beverage Company) was added when CBC expanded east. In 2006 they acquired the Miller Brewing Company portfolio. And now the company represents a number of other strong and quality suppliers.
Then in the early ’90s, they branched out into the brokerage operations in Alabama and Mississippi. In 2016, with the wholesale/brokerage concentration of a national level, the brokerage operations were sold to the Glazers out of Texas.
General Wholesale Company operates as a beer, wine, spirits and non-alcoholic wholesaler statewide in Georgia, a beer wholesaler in Spartanburg, South Carolina and a beer and wine wholesaler in Florida.
