In 2015, Mark Anthony Brands, the producer of mike’s® hard lemonade and White Claw® Hard Seltzer, started a mutually rewarding partnership with Star Distribution Systems, Inc.

MAB tried to expand within the Florida market years ago, but it wasn’t until “we began our alliance with Star Distribution that things really took off,” said Scott Campbell, Mark Anthony Brands’ Senior Director of Logistics and Customer Service.

Star Distribution handles 75 to 100 OTR loads each month for MAB into Florida from their co-packer in Memphis, Tenn. In 2018, the partnership grew even further by establishing a dedicated 40,000-square-foot mixing facility to better service MAB’s distributors in the state of Florida and throughout the Southeast.

It all started back in 2013 at the Food Shippers of America’s annual conference in Phoenix, Ariz., where Campbell met Star Distribution’s Vice President of Business Development, Larry Jimenez, Jr.

Campbell said, “our partnership developed over time through many positive meetings, visiting their facilities and seeing Star’s well-run operation firsthand.” He added, “Star consists of great people that you can trust, which is extremely critical in the supply chain. They continue to offer consistency, amazing service, and expertise in the Florida market.”

“From our perspective,” he said, “Star Distribution is a topnotch Third-Party Logistics Provider that outperforms other 3PL organizations by showing how much they care about our business and our partnership. Star is the benchmark for how a logistics company should operate, always looking for opportunities to explore cost-savings and better service solutions and doing things that really matter to MAB on a daily basis. They’re open to embracing projects and doing whatever it takes to get the job done! We truly appreciate every person on the Star team.”

Accessibility and real-time communication are key elements in the supply chain.

“Star is easy to get hold of!” said Campbell. “You know who you’re going to talk with and how they’re going to treat you—it’s a true relationship. You’re not calling a call center to try to reach somebody who works on your account. With Star, you can text multiple people within their organization to ask questions and they reply quickly with the information you need to make a decision. There’s mutual respect. It’s more than just a contract on paper, it’s solutions and information to help grow our brands.”

Star Distribution Systems’ Jimenez said the same thing about MAB: “They are such a great company to work with. They’re privately owned, like we are, with a friendly, personal feel that resonates with my operations team. Scott and his group are true professionals, and we hold our partnership in the highest regard.”

“We have good rapport with Star Distribution, and we work well with them,” said Campbell. “They’re the type of people we like doing business with. We call it a partnership—a great partnership—because we highly respect what they do and appreciate the tremendous value they bring to our organization.”