Here's what Breakthru's CEO is saying about its latest layoffs

Editor’s note: This is a developing story and will be updated periodically with new information. If you have tips about what’s going on at Breakthru, please get in touch by emailing me ([email protected]) or texting me on Signal (dinfontay.11). Anonymity available.—Dave.

Just weeks after Republic National Distributing Company rolled its own layoffs, its suitor-turned-rival is following suit. On Tuesday evening, social media chatter was rampant that cuts were coming—or already had come—to Breakthru Beverage Group (BBG), the country’s third-largest wine and spirits wholesaler and a major player in RNDC’s post-California collapse.

“Shifting consumer preferences, economic pressures, and evolving marketplace dynamics are reshaping the landscape and placing sustained pressure on our business,” wrote chief executive Tom Bené in a memo on BBG letterhead obtained by Fingers. “To counteract this […] we identified areas where we needed to rethink our structure both at the market level and in the areas that support the markets, to better meet current and future business needs.”

After the Department of Justice blocked a merger between BBG and RNDC, the two middle-tier heavyweights’ fortunes diverged on separate expansionary paths that intersected again in California, where the former scooped up more brands than any other wholesaler during the latter’s two-month sprint to exit the state by September 2025. Some industry observers had figured BBG to be on the shortlist to acquire portions of RNDC’s crumbling, near-national empire, but the only actual buyer to come to the table so far has been Reyes Beverage Group—another major scooper-upper in the RNDCA CA-tastrophe. Whether these cuts at BBG are in preparation for a deal down the line, or just some genuine belt-tightening after last summer’s Golden State feeding frenzy and general industry malaise—or something else entirely—is not yet clear.

A spokesperson for BBG confirmed the veracity of the memo, but declined to answer further questions on the size, location(s), timeline, or causes of the layoffs. A cursory review of Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) boards in Florida, Illinois, and Colorado—states specifically mentioned by users on the subreddit r/breakthru as having been affected by the cuts—turned up no recent notices from Breakthru.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents Breakthru workers in several states, told Fingers via email that the union had “not been contacted by Breakthru Beverage about layoffs.”

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