Press Release

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) today announced an expanded vision for its newly retitled Building Relationships and Empowering Women + Workforce (BREW) initiative, reflecting the growing value of its world-class educational resources for America’s 135,000 beer and beverage distribution professionals.

As the initiative enters its fifth impactful year, this next chapter ensures more distributor employees, across a wide range of roles and experience levels, have access to the training, tools and connections they need to grow their careers and strengthen their companies.

Launched in fall 2021 as Building Relationships and Empowering Women, the initiative quickly built an engaged community around its mission to elevate and advance women in beer distribution. Highlights of its first five years include:

• Connecting more than 2,000 NBWA member employees for education, inspiration and relationship-building at the annual Making Moves and Leadership Forum events
• Delivering world-class professional development courses, webinars and tools, including the BREW Academy and BREW Warehouse
• Launching the Freida G. Maisel Trailblazer Award, recognizing distributor leaders for driving change in their organizations that advances women in the industry

Building on this momentum, BREW will continue to serve as a powerful voice for women in beer and beverage distribution while welcoming all distributor professionals seeking to grow in their careers and advance the industry.

“As America’s beer and beverage distributors navigate an increasingly complex business environment, they need practical tools to develop their teams — and BREW is delivering,” said NBWA Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Kim McKinnish. “This expanded vision for BREW’s future reflects the program’s profound impact across the industry and its role as a trusted source of workforce development that benefits both women and men.”

The expanded branding also includes an updated logo that honors the initiative’s success while capturing its forward-looking energy.

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The National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) represents America’s 3,000 independent beer distributors who service every state, congressional district and media market across the country. Licensed at the federal and state levels, beer distributors get bottles, cans, cases and kegs from a brewer or importer to stores, restaurants and other licensed retail accounts through a transparent and accountable regulatory system.

Distributors build brands of all sizes – from familiar domestic beers to new startup labels and imports from around the world – and generate enormous consumer choice while supporting more than 135,000 quality jobs in their home communities. Beer distributors work locally to keep communities safe by sponsoring programs to promote responsible consumption, combat drunk driving and reduce underage drinking.