How Chris built the fortune
Joseph Christopher Reyes, who goes by Chris, is the older of the two brothers who control Reyes Holdings. His fortune rests on a simple strategy pursued with unusual persistence: buy distribution businesses in fragmented markets, run them more efficiently than the previous owners and use the resulting cash flow to buy the next one.
The starting point was a beer distributorship the family bought in 1976. In the decades that followed, American beer wholesaling consolidated as small family distributors sold out, and the Reyes brothers were among the most active buyers. Their beer division eventually spread across a large part of the country and handled products from the largest brewers as well as craft and import labels.
Chris also led the group into adjacent lines. In 1998 Reyes bought Martin-Brower, which delivers food, packaging and supplies to McDonald's restaurants and has grown with the chain overseas. Then, when the Coca-Cola Company decided in the 2010s to hand its company owned bottling operations in the United States back to independent franchisees, Reyes emerged as one of the biggest new bottlers, taking territories in California, Nevada and the Great Lakes states. Those three pillars make Reyes Holdings one of the largest private companies in the country by revenue.
Companies and holdings
Chris Reyes is chairman of Reyes Holdings, which is based in Rosemont, Illinois, and shares control with his brother Jude, who is co-chairman. The group's principal businesses are the Reyes Beer Division, Martin-Brower, Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling and Great Lakes Coca-Cola Bottling.
Because the company is private, revenue and profit figures come mainly from industry estimates and occasional company statements. The brothers have kept ownership within the family and have not pursued a public listing, preferring to finance growth through retained earnings and borrowing.
The divisions differ in character. Beer distribution is regulated state by state under the three tier system that separates brewers, wholesalers and retailers, which protects established distributors. Martin-Brower is a contract logistics business tied closely to one customer, and the Coca-Cola units combine bottling plants with direct store delivery. Running all three gives the family a spread of income across drinks, restaurants and grocery retail.
Early life and career
Born in the early 1950s, Chris Reyes grew up with his siblings in a family that later went into business together. He entered wholesale distribution as a young man, and the company he built has always put logistics, route efficiency and labor relations at the center of its management.
The brothers' partnership has lasted for nearly five decades. Chris has generally been the public face of the company and its lead negotiator with major suppliers, while Jude has concentrated more on operations. Their relationship with McDonald's, Coca-Cola and leading brewers depends on long term contracts and on meeting demanding service standards, and Chris spent much of his career managing those relationships.
He has also been involved in civic organizations in the Chicago area, which has given him a role in the city's business establishment beyond the family company. People who have worked with the brothers describe a preference for quiet deal making and a long time horizon, traits that suit an industry where relationships with suppliers can last for generations and where territories rarely change hands.
Philanthropy and public life
Chris Reyes and his wife Anne are active donors in Chicago and in Palm Beach, Florida, where the couple also spends time. Their giving has supported education, health care and cultural organizations, often through family vehicles rather than named public foundations, so the full scale of it is not documented.
He is better known for political contributions. Chris Reyes has been a significant donor to Republican candidates and committees at the national and state level, and he has supported business groups that lobby on taxes and regulation affecting distributors. That activity has made him one of the more visible political donors among Illinois business owners, even though he rarely speaks publicly about his views.
Within the distribution industry he is regarded as one of the consolidators who reshaped beer wholesaling in the United States. The growth of Reyes Holdings also illustrates how the Coca-Cola refranchising program created a new generation of very large bottlers, with Reyes among the main beneficiaries.